2 teens attacked in town mocked in YouTube videos

[July 07, 2008]  DOVER, N.Y. (AP) -- Two teenagers who drove to Oniontown after a series of YouTube videos portrayed the hamlet as a run-down, backwoods dump were pelted with rocks by an angry group of young residents, authorities said.

The two 17-year-olds from Mahopac, about 30 miles south of Oniontown, suffered head and face injuries.

Troopers arrested a 17-year-old from Oniontown on Thursday and charged him with criminal mischief. Additional arrests were expected, police said.

State police investigator Eric Schaefer said it wasn't the first time out-of-towners were attacked by local residents.

"The biggest recommendation at this point is for everybody to stay out of there," Schaefer said. "Anybody that doesn't belong there, anybody that's not a resident, just stay out of Oniontown."

In one YouTube video posted in May called "Oniontown Adventures," three boys with foul mouths supposedly drive up to the town. While there, they mock the poverty they find -- giggling at the garbage strewn along the streets and the abandoned cars in the front yards of trailer parks.

Other videos with different people on camera similarly depict the tiny community as the brunt of jokes.

[Associated Press]

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