BAY CITY, MI — The ongoing saga of Bay City’s self-proclaimed « sex toy bandits » has garnered the attention of an online news agency.
The Young Turks, founded in 2002 s « the largest online news show in the world, covering politics, pop culture and lifestyle, » on Tuesday, Jan. 12, posted a 6-minute segment on the legal woes of William J. Cornelius Jr. and his fiancée. The segment, available on YouTube, features hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discussing the alleged sordid antics on Wednesday, Dec. 30 — getting engaged at Walmart, stealing various sex-related trinkets from Spencer’s Gifts, falling asleep while tying his shoes, and being arrested by police.
Cornelius, 25, and his 20-year-old fiancée started a GoFundMe.com page on Jan. 9 seeking $10,000 to pay for their wedding. On the page, they announced themselves as « the sex toy bandits. » GoFundMe removed the account by the following afternoon, before the betrothed raised even $1.
« As the story evolves and you start to see them stealing one thing after another, you begin to wonder, ‘Wait, was that a trick?' » Uygur says in the video. « ‘Was that a part of a strategy to eventually set up the GoFundMe Site?' »
The video had 99,632 views as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20.
The Young Turks’ Facebook page has 723,431 likes. Its YouTube page is one of the top 50 such partners with more than 100 million views per month and more than 2 billion total views.
Cornelius and his then-girlfriend on the evening of Dec. 30 went to the Walmart at 3921 Wilder Road in Bangor Township. He bought her a ring for $29.62, then asked a customer service worker to read a proposal note over the public address system, asking her to marry him, according to police reports. Staff provided Bay County sheriff’s deputies with surveillance camera footage showing the event, with Cornelius and the woman hugging and kissing as people stand around them and applaud, court records show.
The couple then went to Spencer’s Gifts inside the Bay City Mall at 4101 E. Wilder Road, where deputies allege they stole a watch, an edible thong, a sex toy, panties and sex candy valued at $80.93, police reports show.
The couple fled the store prior to deputies’ arrival. Deputies found the woman walking between Bob Evans and Taco Bell, followed by a Spencer’s employee. In her possession were a pair of gold earrings and a silver necklace with a star pendant, apparently stolen from Walmart, police records show.
Deputies found Cornelius in the mall’s food court, asleep at a table with the laces of his shoes between his fingers, records show. They found the purloined Spencer’s items on him, records show.
At the Bay County Jail, the woman told deputies the necklace and earrings were stolen, but she denied being the thief, adding she would not snitch on Cornelius. She later changed her mind to say Cornelius was the culprit, police records show.
Cornelius told deputies he took the jewelry and the items from Spencer’s, as he was feeling brash as he had been given Tramadol, a narcotic-like pain reliever, in a recent hospital visit, court records show.
The couple spent their New Year’s Eve in the Bay County Jail. Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer on Tuesday, Jan. 5, arraigned Cornelius on one count of third-degree retail fraud. The charge is punishable by up to 93 days in jail and a fine of $500 or three times the value of the property stolen. Janer released Cornelius on a personal recognizance bond.
The woman posted bond Tuesday morning, Jan. 5. She was arraigned Jan. 4 on a misdemeanor count of larceny less than $200 stemming from an unrelated theft of a cellphone from private residence on Sept. 16, court records show. The woman has not been arraigned on charges related to the Dec. 30 incidents.
Both Cornelius’ and the woman’s cases are scheduled for a pretrial conference on Friday, Jan. 29.
Cornelius was on probation at the time of the thefts, having been sentenced by a Bay County judge in November 2014 to three years of it on a conviction of ethnic intimidation. In August 2014, Cornelius and cousin Joshua M. Christe were drinking on the porch of their Bay City home when they attacked three black men who were walking by, court records show.