Attention: The following tale involves alleged acts of vandalism and legal threats, an online campaign and one former NFL offensive lineman. It's a remarkably strange story of partying, retribution and the role — legitimate or not — that the Internet can play in exacting retribution.
The drama begins with Brian Holloway, who played several seasons in the NFL, and owns a home in upstate Stephentown, New York.
Holloway went out of town over Labor Day weekend. When he came back, he said he found the house trashed. There was graffiti on the walls, garbage everywhere and what news outlets have pegged as $20,000 to $30,000 in all-around damage. More than 100 local teenagers reportedly had a huge party at Holloway's home, breaking in while he was away, and absolutely wrecking the place.
What's more, the alleged intruders and vandals had left a digital trail on social media, posting photos and declarations of drunkenness to Twitter.
The story started getting more national attention last week, after Holloway launched a website called HelpMeSave300.com. The site collected social-media posts allegedly made the night of the party, and seeks financial assistance to help refurbish the home. But most of all, Holloway cast it as an effort to save the lives of some 300 teenagers before they veer irreparably off course.
"What is even more dangerous and shocking beyond the crimes, drugs and alcohol was reading the tweets and hearing them celebrate their destruction and documenting their crimes," Holloway writes on the site, which features imagery of a flat-lining heart monitor and wrecked vehicles.
The tale then took another bizarre turn when reports said some parents had threatened Holloway for his public campaign.
The site sparked a large — and mostly anonymous — online backlash against the teenagers, according to a Saturday article in the Times Union, an upstate New York-based newspaper.
"Bahaha. Watch some of these losers commit suicide now," reads one response, according to the paper.
"Your parents are lowlifes," reads another.
So, with the story gaining more and more attention, Holloway has been making the media rounds. He appeared on Fox News on Friday, where he gave a rather bizarre interview. In it, he proclaims "I'm no hero," interrupts hosts' questions, acknowledges his grandchildren through the camera using some Ninja Turtles references and out of nowhere, accuses a neighbor of spousal abuse. Needless to say, the interview quickly goes off the rails:
But that's not all. On Sunday, the following video appeared on YouTube with the title "Don't Bow Down! — The Interview that FOX Would NOT SHOW!!!" It shows an unedited one-sided cut of the interview shot from the room where Holloway conducted it remotely, and is even weirder than the original:
Meanwhile, TMZ reported that Holloway's house had been foreclosed upon well before the party that caused the alleged damage, and that he owed more than $1 million on it.
Times Union columnist Chris Churchill wrote that some of the teenagers involved say Holloway's 19-year-old son helped plan the party, that the level of damage "has been wildly exaggerated" and that some of the graffiti existed well before the party took place.
For now, there's plenty of hearsay and little is certain, but it seems likely the story has more strange twists in store before the truth is revealed. Is Holloway entirely the victim, or is there more to his story than meets the eye?
No matter the ultimate outcome, the whole tale is a bizarre statement on justice in the digital age. We'll continue to follow, and update as more develops.
Image: Brian Holloway Jr., YouTube
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