California couple who lured and beat bike thieves cleared of all charges

A couple in California spent five months intentionally luring bike thieves into their front yard with an unlocked bicycle, beating them with aluminum baseball bats, and posting the videos online. Corey Cornutt, 25, and Savannah Grillot, 29, of Visalia were arrested in January

This image is a screenshot of a post from the verified X (formerly Twitter) account @MorbidKnowledge, reporting on a story from Visalia, California. The post explains that 25-year-old Corey Cornutt and 29-year-old Savannah Grillot spent five months intentionally luring bike thieves into their front yard using an unlocked bicycle, beating the thieves with aluminum baseball bats, and posting the footage online, leading to their arrest in January. Below the post text are the couple's mugshots, followed by security camera footage of a person attempting to steal a bike near an orange pickup truck. A red circle highlights a user-submitted community note on the post, which states that the local district attorney's office declined to file charges against the couple, clearing them of all criminal wrongdoing. The post is framed as a satisfying update for people frustrated by lack of consequences for petty bike theft.

The core news story was originally reported by California local news outlet abc30. The story was first shared on X/Twitter by the verified account @MorbidKnowledge, which posts content related to unusual, morbid, or viral news events. A user added a red circle to highlight the exculpatory community note on the post, and this edited screenshot was then republished to 9Gag via its RSS feed, with the original 9Gag post title 'You LOVE to see it!!' referring to the widespread public sentiment that petty bike theft often goes unpunished, making the couple's actions and subsequent clearing of charges feel gratifying to many audiences.