Samantha Tumpach: Twilight Fan Arrested, Filmed Parts Of New Moon

by amyellensoden | December 7, 2009 at 02:06 pm

874 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

22-year-old Samantha Tumpach, a Twilight fan from Chicago, accidently captured some footage of "New Moon" on her digital camera and is now facing possible jail time. Tumpach was attending a screening of the second Twilight Saga film, "New Moon," with her sister to celebrate her sister's 29th birthday. While testing out a new digital camera, Tumpach took photos and videos at the "New Moon" screening.

Security at the Muvico theatre in Rosemont saw Tumpach handling the camera and immediately escorted her from the theatre. Managers then contacted police and Tumpach was arrested. She spent two days in jail and is now facing felony charges.

"The motion picture industry has encouraged theater owners to adopt a 'zero-tolerance' policy prohibiting the video or audio recording of any portion of a movie," Muvico Entertainment, which oversees the theater, told HLN's "Prime News."

According to Muvico Entertainment, the fate of Tumpach resides in the police's hands but she could be facing up to three years in prison. Tumpach claims she was simply documenting her sister's birthday party and hadn't intended to break any laws.

She did admit to having a few minutes of "New Moon" movie footage on her camera but claimed to have intended no harm. Tumpach is facing charges for criminal use of a motion picture exhibition facility.

"It was a big thing over nothing," Tumpach said.

"We were just messing around. Everyone is so surprised it got this far." Managers from the theatre contacted police who examined the small digital camera.

Police spokesman Frank Siciliano said: "Officers found that Tumpach had taped two very short segments of the movie - no more than four minutes total."