American Vandal

Dylan did it.

Is that your first question? Who I think did it?

'Cause it was totally Dylan. I mean, someone saw him do it.

Like, seriously.

You're talking about Alex Trimboli.

Yeah.

Alex saw it happen, so, like, case closed, right?

Have you ever hooked up with Alex Trimboli?

Ew.

Did you get a hand job from Sara Pearson?

Hundred percent.

Please, um, state your name for the record.

Uh, Alex Trimboli, senior.

Alex Trimboli,

the school board's only witness to the vandalism on March 15th.

It is a shocking scene for Hanover High teachers

who left school today only to find their cars vandalized with obscene images.

Here's what I've been able to dig up about Alex.

He moved to Oceanside in ninth grade.

He's an Eagle Scout.

He ran for class treasurer and lost.

I've always had a lot of respect for Alex. A good student, a good kid all around.

Pretty much a straight shooter from my experience.

They say, like, high school is the best years of your life.

Um, I know it isn't for me,

but I do think that I'll look back and I'll think I killed it.

Alex's testimony single-handedly sealed Dylan Maxwell's fate.

I walked out to the parking lot, and that's where I saw it.

I saw...

Dylan Maxwell...

spray-painting...

the graphic, uh...

dicks.

Now, are you certain of what you saw?

Yeah. Hundred percent.

Trimboli didn't see shit, because I wasn't fucking there.

In a case with so little tangible evidence,

everything comes down to who you can trust.

Do we believe Alex, or do we believe Dylan?

That's what we'll be looking into today.

-Why would he say that he saw you? -I don't know, dude.

Maybe 'cause he's a little bitch.

I'm sorry, what?

"Little bitch," a phrase I didn't quite understand.

A little bitch.

But it wasn't the first time I'd heard it.

Why do you think Alex Trimboli would lie?

-Alex Trimboli? Little bitch. -Huge little bitch.

I don't think "little bitch" has anything to do with Alex's masculinity.

They were challenging something else:

his integrity.

So, a little bitch is someone who informs a teacher

when a rule has been broken or something?

No. No, that's more like a fucking snitch...

Or whatever. Yeah. No, a little bitch is more like...

Uh, more like someone who makes shit up.

Oh, so, a little bitch is like, um, someone who...

bends the truth to make themselves look better?

Yeah, that's a little bitch move, for sure.

Yeah.

Alex Trimboli, the school board's only witness.

But can we trust him?

Or is Alex Trimboli exactly what Dylan Maxwell claims him to be?

This was gonna take a little research.

We brought Gabi along, because she's a senior

and knows more about Alex than we do. Also, she has a driver's license.

So, Alex Trimboli claims to have had 11 beers at Nana's party.

I don't know. I don't believe 11 beers.

-Wouldn't you be unconscious after that? -Dude, I was wasted.

-It was crazy, man. I had 11 beers. - Was that the most drunk

you've ever been in your life?

It's the most drunk anyone

at our high school's even been in their life.

Here's another thing.

He claims to have been really close friends with Joey Themelis.

- No. That's so-- -Yeah? Wasn't he?

-No. -Was he lying?

I never saw them hanging out, but he always made these posts.

-Yeah, he always posted about them. -Like "R.I.P., Joey." "Bros for life."

Yeah, Joey was a... A bright light in this world.

Were you guys friends?

Best friends.

And to everyone...

who questions my friendship with Joey...

I want them to think about how long they wore their cancer bracelets.

Joey may not have been bros for life with Trimboli,

or bros at all, according to some of Joey's friends.

And the claim that he drank 11 beers at Nana's party

also met with skepticism from seniors.

So, is Alex the type of person to lie for attention?

I don't know. I mean, maybe he could have been friends with Joey

and I just never saw.

Maybe he could have had... Not 11 beers. Eight, nine.

It could be possible.

But the Sara part just seemed no.

This is Sara Pearson, dude.

I've had her in class, and she is distracting.

You know, okay, I'm not gonna say one of my students is unbelievably hot.

But, oh, my God, dude.

So, I won't.

So, Alex Trimboli claims

that he got a hand job from Sara Pearson?

Oh, hold on. Whoa, whoa.

I can't talk to you about that. That's not-- That's...

Is that what he's saying?

Do you have any way of proving

that Sara Pearson likes you in any sort of way,

whether it's a photo you took together? Um, anything. Anything.

Oh, wow.

A conversation between Sara Pearson and Alex Trimboli on August 4th,

the night of the alleged hand job.

5:51 p.m. Alex: "Hey. You going to the fire pit tonight after lights out?"

Over an hour passes.

Then Sara Pearson responds, "Heyy," with two Y's.

Immediately, Alex texts, "You going to the fire pit thing later tonight?"

Another hour passes.

Sara: "Yeah, def."

Alex: "See you there. Probably be there a little after 10."

Sara responds, "See you soon," smiley face.

Now, that could just be friendly,

but that "heyy" with two Y's, I don't know.

Everyone in history has always known that if you text someone

"heyy" with two Y's, it means you wanna fuck.

Or... Or give a hand job.

-What base is Alex saying? - Third. Hand job.

Are we sure that's what third base is?

Well, second base is above the belt,

-and third base is below, right? -Yeah.

-So, Peter, do you think Alex is lying? - I don't know.

I'm thrown by that text message, the "heyy" with two Y's.

Two Y's.

One for "Why should I?" One for "Why not?"

So, what? One Y just is a regular "hey," and then you add another Y

and all of a sudden, it's "heyy"?

-Each Y is, like, more wanting the D. -Wow.

-It's more like, "Hey." - Am I doing it right? Hey.

Ultimately, we all agreed

that the extra Y was definitely more flirtatious.

Sam even stumbled upon a series of memes that confirmed this.

So, is it possible that Alex isn't lying?

Maybe he did hook up with Sara Pearson.

Pete, I will say, shit goes down at Camp Miniwaka.

Camp Miniwaka is an overnight summer camp

that many Hanover High students attend...

including Sara Pearson,

Alex Trimboli,

my co-producer, Sam Ecklund, and my head of transpo, Gabi Granger.

-And according to Sam and Gabi... -Shit does go down at Camp Miniwaka.

Last year, there was a threesome in a canoe.

We headed to Camp Miniwaka

to investigate the scene of the alleged hand job.

If we're able to determine that Alex did fabricate this fondling,

what else could he be falsifying?

If Alex said "blow job," I would have called bullshit, for sure.

-Really? -But just...

eh, a simple hand job is not that big of a commitment.

Wait, really?

According to Alex, the alleged hookup was a culmination of a few things.

First and foremost...

I had a legendary color war.

For those of you like myself who have never attended overnight camp,

color war is a competition where the entire camp

is divided into two teams, each of which is assigned a color.

The two teams then compete in various challenges to earn points.

Apparently, it's a big deal.

You know, like in "Mario"...

when he catches the star and he starts blinking really fast,

and he can't be killed by the mushroom men or those aggressive turtles?

That's what I felt like... unstoppable.

That day, Alex earned huge points

when he gave an inspirational speech at the mess hall.

He told his red team to know yourself and know your worth.

But a quick Google search would suggest

he just took lyrics from a popular Drake song

and changed the N-word to "red team."

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

So, which way are we leaning?

Well, there's one thing we didn't consider.

What?

Sara was crushing on Van all summer.

Was she?

Multiple sources verify that Sara Pearson was indeed crushing

on camp counselor Van Delorey last summer.

Sara spent her entire CPR training staring at Van.

So, she would have done way more than just some mouth-to-mouth with him.

She was into me?

I guess I didn't notice.

Van's the hottest counselor. If I got rejected by him,

I would need a rebound, too.

I used to think Van was almost the hottest counselor, but...

not, because of his hair, but now he has better hair,

and now he is the hottest.

Look, I get it. Van's a god.

And could he have hooked up with Sara Pearson? Probably.

Did he? No. Did I? Yes.

But on the day of the alleged hand job,

Sara found out that Van was hooking up with someone else,

senior class president Christa Carlyle.

So, the theory is that she was so upset that Van chose another girl over her

that Sara would look anywhere for affection,