Bieber seems to confirm that he made up theft story for publicity stunt before the video premiere, but his camp claims his personal belonging was indeed stolen.
- Oct 13, 2012
AceShowbiz - Justin Bieber releases a music video for his latest single "Beauty and a Beat". The video is a longer version of a short clip posted by a self-proclaimed thief who said he/she had obtained the singer's personal footage from his stolen computer and camera.
It shows Bieber having a pool party with a bunch of shirtless guys, scantily-clad ladies and Barbie-looking Nicki Minaj. It opens with a tag that reads the video "was illegally uploaded by an anonymous blogger" after three hours of his personal footage was stolen.
Words soon run rampant that Bieber made up the theft claim. It's fueled by the fact that the alleged thief, @gwexy, is none other than himself. "My publicity stunt worked, got more attention than i ever imagined. all my BELIEBERS figured me out Clever people!hope you enjoy my new vid!" so he tweets.
On his own real page, he explains why he pulled the prank, "since i was 14 i have had a lot of things said about me, from dying, to taking hormones, to dying again, to stuff about my family... to saying i had a baby with a woman i never even met. nude pics, drugs, my family, my character...but today...today i get to be in on it..."
When people start to get a picture of the whole situation, Bieber's rep makes a contradicting statement that the laptop Bieber talked about was indeed missing. ''Be very clear, the laptop was indeed stolen in Tacoma. That was NOT a hoax (sic)," says Melissa Victor.
Bieber's tour manager, Josh Williams, filed a report with the Tacoma Police Department on Thursday, October 11, while the singer himself claimed they lost the laptop on Tuesday while he's performing in Tacoma. "Really sucks. people should respect other's property," he tweeted back then.
A police spokesperson, Mark Fulghum, does confirm there's a report filed, but he's unsure cops will launch an investigation. They are not happy about it, believing it's indeed a ploy to call attention to Bieber before the video premiere. ''A lot of people got played. It became a big media frenzy, so I guess that was the idea," he says.
