‘Swing Set Susan’ Charged With Impersonating An Officer After Allegedly Harassing Teens
In a video that has been viewed millions of times, a woman believed to be Samantha Louise Eley can be seen yelling at a group of teens having fun at a playground and demanding that they leave.
A Texas woman who earned the moniker “Swing Set Susan” after video surfaced online of her harassing a group of teens at a public playground has been arrested for allegedly pretending to be a police officer.
Samantha Louise Eley, 38, was taken into custody Monday for violating a bond related to a separate case involving alleged family violence, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. However, Eley, who was already in custody at the Tarrant County Jail, was then charged on Wednesday with impersonating a public servant in relation to a viral video featuring a woman who has been referred to online as “Swing Set Susan,” the Fort Worth Police Department confirmed via Twitter.
The video in question, filmed at Dream Park in Fort Worth on the afternoon of Oct. 16, shows a woman believed to be Eley approach a group of teens while they play on a swing set, demanding that they get off of the playground equipment, according to another report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The woman can be seen using her hands to stop the motion of the swing and berating the children, telling them that they should not be on the swing because they are adults.
At one point during her profanity-laden tirade, the woman claims to be a police officer, and later tells one of the kids, “I can literally arrest you as a f--king adult.”
A video shared on Twitter of the interaction, which seems to have been filmed by one of the children she was seen harassing, has been viewed more than 5 million times.
“We were just trying to play,” the caption reads. “I guess [we’re] adults.”
Local police responded to the scene at around 3:30 p.m., but a witness told officers that the woman left after he told her that he was going to call the police, according to the Star-Telegram.
Police confirmed on Twitter that the woman in the video is not a police officer with the Fort Worth Police Department. They went on to say that they are “actively investigating” the incident, and speculated that charges of impersonating a public servant and disorderly conduct were a possibility for the woman, who they theorized was a local resident.
One of the children who was interviewed by a detective with the FWPD said that she and her friends left the park after the woman's outburst because they believed that she really was a cop, according to an arrest warrant obtained by the Star-Telegram.
In a statement obtained by the New York Post, Fort Worth’s Parks and Recreation Department said that the city’s parks and playgrounds “are open to all ages,” although some playground equipment does have a recommended age range.
Eley, who has also previously been known as Samantha Silvers and Samantha Chacon, had her bond regarding the impersonation charge set at $2,500, the warrant reportedly states.
Last week’s incident was not Eley’s first brush with the law. She was charged most recently on Aug. 29 with assault/bodily injury of a family member in connection with an Aug. 17 incident, the details of which have not been made available, according to the Star-Telegram.
She has also been charged with numerous DWIs, having spent 50 days in jail due to multiple DWIs in 2017 and receiving a 16-month probation sentence for driving while intoxicated in 2014, the paper reports.