Channel 4 News Menu
28 Jan 2015

How viral video of intruder beating created #MrWrongHouse

By

A former US paratrooper beats up a suspected robber on his property, puts the footage on YouTube, adds a reggae soundtrack – and creates a viral hit.

Andrew Myers spotted a man lurking around his property at 3.30 am, and made sure he was ready when he returned.

The former US paratrooper captured the first visit to his Seattle home on CCTV and had the cameras trained on what happened next. Three nights later, the intruder comes back.

You definitely do not live here Andrew Myers

Mr Myers follows him, making sure the basement is secure, before the intruder climbs the steps to the front door – at which point he confronts him.

“I live here,” the intruder says off camera, according to Mr Myers.

“You definitely do not live here,” he replies.

According to Mr Myers, the intruder tries to throw a big punch – “a haymaker” – at which point he replies with his own right hook as he jumps on the intruder, down the steps and onto the pavement, deploying a flurry of punches to subdue the man.

‘He beat the hell out of the guy’

Not content with taking out the intruder and then seeing him dragged away by police, Mr Myers posted the whole thing on YouTube with a reggae soundtrack, and watched the views shoot past 1m up to today’s total of over 4m.

As a result, he raised an estimated $15,000 for his favourite military charity and produced a viral hit in the US, spawning a host of “Mr Wrong House” imitators with arms stretched out in support of the homespun justice he dished out.

“It’s not that I’m a bad-ass,” Mr Myers told Channel 4 News.

“When you punch someone out in a bar you’re the a****** no matter what happens. But when someone provokes you, you’re kind of the hero every time.”

Mr Myers served four years as a US paratrooper including time in Afghanistan before rejoining civilian life in 2012.

His training meant he was confident of confronting the suspected robber and holding him down until the police came.

“He beat the hell out of the guy,” a spokesman for the Seattle police told Channel 4 News, recalling the incident from November.

“I would not usually set out using knuckles on someone unless I had to,” Mr Myers said.

“I confronted him at the door and informed him that he was not coming inside and would be staying until he speaks with the police,” he told officers.

“Once he heard ‘police’ he attempted to begin an assault on me to evade. He lost.”

Veterans in the US are not offered service dogs to help with PTSD Andrew Myers

Mr Myers said he was trying to protect his business, which is in the same property as his flat – in particular camera and editing equipment worth an estimated $60,000.

But he was initially reluctant to try to exploit his new-found social media fame.

“I felt weird about monetising it – it was just a conclusion of a story,” he told Channel 4 News.

But then he decided “it wouldn’t make sense to not get money on back of the video”.

“‘Mr Wrong House’ was something we [my friends and I] had laughed about from the beginning – that’s what we were calling him.”

Mr Myers wanted to help his fellow veterans, having developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his military service.

He had found solace with his four-year-old service dog Hunter, who gave him a new structure to help life after the military, and that inspired his choice.

Paws and Stripes soon became his cause – a US charity that rescues shelter dogs and helps re-house them with ex-servicemen, for which he raised thousands of dollars.

‘Sense of purpose’

“The real issue is not necessarily to raise money for veterans, it was to raise awareness that veterans in the US are not offered service dogs to help with PTSD,” he said.

Mr Myers’ dog gives him “a sense of purpose” having previously lived “month to month”.

“I don’t do well around people, I do well in my own company,” he added.

“With a dog there’s obviously loyalty built in. He’s kind of my dude – he won’t let me overreact to anything.”

“All they do is train these dogs and veterans to recognise patterns that lead up to patterns that lead to unpleasant behaviour,” he added.

“It brings them into counselling – recognising how to deal with and mitigate the symptoms.

“People who embrace the idea that they have PTSD are much better prepared to address it.”

So that explains the charity – but what about the reggae soundtrack?

“This is a YouTube-licensed song. I put it on there – and you watch it, the beat breaks down at very crucial point in the video,” he said.

“It ends right where you see the cop sirens. If I had paid to have a song created for that video it would not have been any better.”