There’s no shortage of dating app matches gone awry. A woman you find attractive shares that, yes, she actually likes “Live, Laugh, Love” wall art. A sweet guy finally shares a picture of himself and you notice a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag hanging in the background. And, if you’re one Bumble user, your potential date brags about breaking into the U.S. Capitol. You know, just your typical online-dating horror story.
Believe it or not, that's exactly what Robert Chapman told his potential love interest when he attempted to persuade them that he was worth their time and a possible dinner date. A week after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, Chapman sent the following message via the popular dating app Bumble: “I did storm the Capitol. I made it all the way to Statuary Hall.”
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Like many romantic gambles, Chapman’s wildly bizarre humblebrag did not pan out. “We’re not a match,” his potential date wrote back. They then contacted the police and shared screenshot images of the braggadocio's pick-up game.
Then, on Thursday, as a result of the Bumble user’s tip, Chapman was arrested by the FBI and charged with “trespassing at the U.S. Capitol and disrupting official government operations,” according to The Washington Post.
But bragging about taking part in a coup attempt on Bumble wasn’t the only bad decision Chapman had made — he also bragged about his involvement in the insurrection on Facebook, even posting from inside the Capitol building, and went so far as to change his profile picture to that of an “insurrection selfie,” per the same Washington Post report.
After the tip, law enforcement reviewed body camera and security camera footage taken on Jan. 6 and located video of Chapman, wearing a bandana across his forehead as he joined rioters inside the Capitol building. Chapman was also photographed with other insurrectionists inside Statuary Hall, which was then posted on Facebook by a woman who captioned the photo: “My Dear friend and Brostar Robert made it in the Capitol building at the protest yesterday. Wooo Hooooooooo!!!!”
Chapman is hardly the first person to brag about their involvement in a deadly insurrection in an attempt to secure a date, only to be issued a court date instead. Some women have reportedly started changing their political affiliation to “conservative” in an attempt to catfish insurrectionists, many of whom happily shared their participation in the violent Jan. 6 event.
“I know a friend who changed her preferences on Bumble to Conservative,” one woman shared in a now-viral tweet. “She’s matching with MAGA bros and they're bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol. She’s sending them to the FBI.” “Well played,” John Sipher, a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), tweeted back. Shortly after the coup attempt, Bumble, Tinder, and Match started banning users who uploaded pictures of the riot to their profiles.
So far, 427 people have been arrested for their involvement in what the CIA has deemed “the most documented crime in U.S. history.” Given how quickly MAGA supporters are falling over themselves to tout their involvement in a federal crime, that number is sure to climb. We bet Chapman wishes he had just used the pick-up line, “From 0 to America, how free are you tonight?”