David Schumacher

One of Schumacher's many mugshots

"*Hey NBC, I got two words for ya: role-playing. Chat room, dude!*"
―Schumacher's infamous quote
**David Wesley Schumacher, Jr**, otherwise known as **freebird\_72000**, was a potential predator caught in the Fort Myers, Florida sting. He is best known for his previous encounters with the law, acting like a "gangsta" and the staunch defence of his "role-playing chat room" escapades, to the point where he continued to defend his behavior on his own YouTube channel years later. As a result, he is one of the more infamous suspects from the show.

## Biography

Then 21-year-old Schumacher engaged in a chat with a girl he believed to be fourteen years old named “Bea”. In the chat that spans four days, he tries to say the girl seems at least seventeen and invites her to go to a block party with him and smoke marijuana. Later, he showed interest in the girl giving him oral sex, asking, “ur gonna put my dick in ur mouth cuz I like that” and that he likes to “hit it from the back”. He then wants to know if she wants to “fuck or make love” for her first sexual experience. He also makes plans to stay the night after the party.

David managed to bum a ride off of his sister to pick up what he thought was an underaged girl and bring her to a birthday party. He walks in displaying a cavalier amount of swagger, admiring the decor and mentioning smoking cannabis with the decoy when he can procure some only to encounter Chris Hansen. After incorrectly assuming that he is the girl's father, Schumacher undergoes a revelation and interjects to Chris, "you look like law enforcement!" and claims that he happens to know law enforcement. But he is proved wrong once again when Chris reveals his identity, and the NBC camera crew comes out, prompting Schumacher to cover his face up with his hat and shirt after his face had already been on camera for a significant period of time. Now that he realizes he is going to be on national television, he tries to defend himself one last time. He specifically calls out NBC for overlooking the fact that he was merely participating in a role-playing chat room, and the channel has it out for people just trying to live their lives, only to go outside and get arrested by the law enforcement he apparently knows. Schumacher's sister learns of her brother's intentions, stating that he told her she was seventeen.

Schumacher is very boisterous during his arrest, laughing at the police when they don’t find marijuana on him. He also says he doesn’t need to hook up with a fourteen-year-old because “[he] got all kinda girls!”. He finally announces his plans to sue everyone involved in his arrest when he’s found not guilty.

## Aftermath

Including the sex offence charge from the sting, Schumacher had accumulated twelve charges, including a charge in connection with a stabbing, robbery, and grand theft of a motor vehicle. His TCAP charges were dropped due to accepting a plea deal for the other charges he was facing at the time. This was due to his lawyer subpoenaing the computer on which the chat took place, which Perverted Justice refused to honor. The FBI was tasked to take the computer from PJ on a court order and while they were on the way to PJ’s headquarters to seize it, PJ members wiped all files pertaining to Schumacher’s case, which was the only evidence the prosecution had to go on. Schumacher ended up being convicted on felony Aggravated Assault and Witness Intimidation charges and sentenced to four years and seven months. He was released after serving two years and eleven months.

On May 9, 2017, he formally launched his bid as a YouTuber, releasing his entire YouTube career that very day. In his channel introduction he gives viewers a brief civics lesson and rightly accuses Perverted Justice of destroying evidence in his case. Another brief video uploaded after lays out his plans for the channel, where he lambasted the so-called "fuckboy TCAPers", the police, and current affairs in America. His final two videos call out Stacy Kutzler of Perverted Justice, claiming that she withheld evidence and manufactured the incriminating chat logs. Kutzler was named in the move to dismiss the charges because she was the one that ran the aforementioned wipe off his files.

On August 31st, 2017, Schumacher was arrested for Possession of Marijuana Over 20 Grams. He would not be sentenced until May 2019 and given two and a half years in prison. He would be released in April 2020 after serving a little over eight months. In December of the same year, he was arrested in Punta Gorda, Florida for attempted auto theft at a gas station. He stopped his attempt when he was discovered by the car's owner and arrested. He would tell the arresting officers that he thought the car had "nuclear cases" inside.He was bound over in jail until a competency hearing in April 2021 in which he was deemed incompetent to stand trial and ordered to be committed to a mental institution. However, the institution had no room for Schumacher and he remained in jail until October, during which time he tried to get another competency hearing so he could get sentenced with the time he had already served up to that point. He was denied this request as a vacancy had opened up at the mental institution and was subsequently committed.

## 2022 Update/2023 Arrest and Conviction

David emailed Joey's TCaP Channel, personally requesting that Joey shares an update on David's life. He is currently in the United Kingdom, along with his girlfriend Emma. He spoke in length regarding the struggle it took for him to be allowed to move to the UK, as well as how much he appreciates his current girlfriend, stating, "*She's never been in trouble, has a good job. Finally I might get my shit together over here.*" Emma describes David as a kind-hearted, generous man who frequently donates food to local homeless shelters. After being released from jail following a possession of marijuana charge, David along with his girlfriend moved to the UK from Florida, and are hoping to start a new chapter in David's life and have a family.

However, not even a month later, Joey reported that David was arrested *again* for burglary in Florida, meaning he was either lying or had promptly returned to the United States. This also made his claims about Emma and her legitimacy as his girlfriend unconfirmed, but likely a lie on David's part. Joey uploaded Schumacher's arrest footage on May 18, 2023. Schumacher was charged with three counts: Burglary of a Dwelling - No Assault and Battery, Theft of a Dwelling ($100 - $750), and Damage of Property - Criminal Mischief over $1000. On October 24th of the same year, he received two sentences of fifteen and five years to be served consecutively, giving him a total of 20 years to serve less the time he had served during his criminal proceedings. He was also ordered to pay a little over $1500 in fines.

## Trivia

* Technically, Schumacher was right with his infamous quote being two words if the words were compounded as “roleplaying chatroom” or "role-playing chatroom", but the fandom has gotten more comedic material from not seeing it as such.
* When the camera crew enters the room, David attempts to hide his face and says, *"Hey man, I don't wanna um, be on the news, you feel me?"* Chris hilariously responds with, *"We are filming,"* mishearing David's final portion of that phrase as *"you filming?"*
* Even though Schumacher was acquitted of his charges stemming from his TCaP appearance, he didn’t follow through on his promise to “sue somebody”.
* To this day, Perverted Justice still claims he was convicted on the charges stemming from their chat, claiming the Aggravated Assault charge he got his four-year and seven-month sentence for was from charges from the chat, even though his criminal record shows this is not the case.

## Quotes

**Schumacher:** We were in a role-playing chat room...

**Chris:** (Reading from chat logs) "Have you ever given or got head?", "Do you need a teacher?", "watch porno?", and "you got porno?"

**Schumacher:** I'm an adult!

**Schumacher:** (Covering up face with hat) Hey man, I don't wa- I don't wanna um, be on the news, you feel me?

**Chris:** We are filming.

**Schumacher:** I don't wanna be on the news, dawg.

**Chris:** Well, it's a little late for that, dawg.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/?archive=freebird\_72000
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.dc.state.fl.us/offenderSearch/detail.aspx?Page=Detail&DCNumber=Y21975&TypeSearch=IR
3. ↑ https://nbc-2.com/news/2020/12/11/man-arrested-for-trying-to-steal-car-at-punta-gorda-gas-station/
4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thhFDsGJEp4&t=0s
5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHvEe8dkcec
6. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F61bj0m6j4mwb1.jpg
7. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/?con=freebird\_72000