Crime Weekly - S3 Ep293: Crime Weekly News: Fisherman Arrested After Disturbing Video Emerges

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

On April 1, 2025, 22-year-old fisherman Gage Towles was fishing alone near the US-41 bridge in Punta Gorda when he was confronted by 40-year-old charter captain Brock Horner of Tarpon Coast Fishing Charters. The encounter, captured on Towles' GoPro, shows Horner aggressively approaching, boarding Towles' boat without permission, and shouting at the younger fisherman. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're coming to you with another episode and we're going to be talking about a viral video that's making its way across the internet. And we haven't joked about it in a long time, but as a fellow fisherman, I'm offended by this video. Cause you fish all the time. Fish all the time. That's a shout out to our old school day one-ers. They'll know what that means, but yes, uh, love to fish. I think you said you're talking about getting a boat as well. Fishing is a great time. It's a great opportunity to get out there, spend some time with yourself. It's usually a peaceful experience.

Very peaceful. That's why I love fishing so much because everything, especially you and I, everything's so fast paced, right? And fishing, it forces you to be calm, quiet, keep your thoughts internal. You don't want to scare the fish. And it's kind of like in a weird way, and this is a stretch, it's almost like an investigation because you're trying to figure out who the bad guy is in a criminal case. You're trying to figure out their moves and where they're

going to be next because you're trying to apprehend them. Fish is kind of the same way, depending on the day, depending on the time, depending on the location, depending on what type of bait you're using, that will dictate how successful you are. So it's this really like this cat and mouse game. And I enjoy it because it's not like you just throw a worm in the water and you catch a fish. You can do that, but there's a little bit more strategy to it, which I really enjoy, but it forces me to just stay to my own thoughts, quiet, not really get involved in anything, not worry about the drama. And it's a really good time. And that's why this video for me personally

was infuriating because stealing some peace from this little guy right now, I shouldn't say little guy, he's a young kid, but just really ruining a great experience and probably traumatizing this kid for the rest of his life. Well, this, yeah, the kid we're talking about, Gage Towles, he's 22 years old. He fishes all the time, just like you. Who doesn't? Who doesn't? He has a YouTube channel, and it's called Sick for Fishing.

And so he goes out and he wears a GoPro or has some sort of camera on him while he's doing this because this is what he does for fun. And like you said, it should be a quiet, peaceful, safe time. Now, I don't fish, okay, because I feel bad for the fish. Catch and release. I feel like, I don't know, I stabbed your mouth. I don't know. I feel bad. I don't fish. I did it once in actually in the Thousand Islands, which is also a beautiful place to fish if you haven't, Derek. And I just felt like the guilt wracked me. I have koi fish at home, and I just love hanging out with them after work. They're like my peaceful place. So I don't like to fish. But what I do is I go out on the boat. I'm reading.

It is a quiet time to be almost like in one with nature like you're surrounded by trees and water and it's just a very peaceful time. So what we have here is, well, why don't you give them a little introduction? I'll give them a little download and you can go into all the details. So for anybody who hasn't heard about this video yet, on April 1st, 2025, 40-year-old charter captain Brock Horner was filmed aggressively confronting 22-year-old fisherman Gage Towles. The altercation intensified when Horner unlawfully boarded Towles' boat without permission, leading to a series of threats and physical intimidation. The distressing footage quickly spread across social media platforms, amassing millions of views and sparking widespread outrage,

which is completely understandable if you haven't seen the video yet. Should we play it now before you get into it? No, no. I'm going to give a little breakdown of the timeline and then we'll play a portion of the video. And the full video is longer so you can kind of see the escalation. But the part of the video I'm going to want to play for you is the part where things definitely seem to be getting like more heated and gauge towels. The 22 year old, you can definitely tell in his voice that he's terrified. Right. And that's that,

that bothered me because I have a son and to think about him going out there completely minding his own business and being accosted like this by a crazy person who has no control over their emotions as a grown ass, 40 year old man at his big old age, Brock Horner, at his big old age of 40, intimidating this little skinny kid on a boat. It's just disgusting to me. So the initial altercation happened a few days before this video was filmed. It happened on March 30th, 2025, around 5.30 a.m. when Captain Brock Horner allegedly drove his boat at a high rate of speed under the Barron Collier Bridge in Punta Gorda, Florida. He came within 10 feet of Gage Towel's vessel and within five feet of another boat.

And words were exchanged among the boaters during this encounter, pretty much like the boaters who were sitting under the bridge fishing started yelling, what the hell are you doing? You know, this is dangerous what you're doing here. Like, stop it. Like maybe some swear words, whatever. Yeah. I think if you watch the video, there was a term used by a fisherman who's not on camera. It looks like it might've been a friend or acquaintance of Gage. I think he was the guy on the other boat because Gage kept saying that was the other guy. That was the guy that Gage Horner came within five feet. He allegedly called him, you know, a not so nice word, F word. You'll see it in the video. And Brock was confronting Gage about this. So that happened like the initial

thing happened on March 30th. But then a few days later, on April 1st, around 730 p.m., another confrontation took place on the Peace River in Punta Gorda, where Captain Brock Horner, operating his vessel with four passengers, four other grown men, approached 22-year-old Gage Towles, who was fishing alone, completely alone. And Horner accused Towles of prior boating infraction. He was like, hey, you know, basically basically it doesn't matter how fast I was going. That's the law because you guys didn't have your lights on or whatever. And Gage is sort of initially arguing with this guy. And he's like, no, that wasn't me. I did have my lights on. I was doing everything right.

And that was the other boat that was yelling at you. That wasn't me. But you'll see in this video we're about to play for you, Captain Brock Horner is not hearing this. And he seems intent on having a fight. He seems dead set on blaming this kid for something that happened days ago that wasn't even completely focused on Gage Towles. There was other individuals there, a whole nother boat there, and Gage is trying to explain this to him. Brock Horner does not want to hear it. So let's play a clip from that video now, and then we'll come back and discuss. What, like five in the morning? Yeah.

Yeah. No, that was the odd that was dude in that boat Probably were you the one that came through the middle of the bridge was that you? Yeah, I was here but that you ran in front of the other dude over there Bro you ran right through the middle of the bridge while we were all fishing Bro we were all fishing here the I'm not the night, the guy didn't have any lights on. Bro, we were all fishing here. All right, bro. I'm not going to do this with you, bro. I'm not going to do this with you, bro. Like it's not the, it's not the right time, bro. Bro, bro. You can't come flying through the middle of the bridge, bro. All right, bro. All right, bro. What are you trying to do, bro?

What am I trying? What are you trying to do, bro? What am I trying to do? What are you trying to do, bro? You want to go? I don't want to go. I want you to get the out of here. Big tough guy. Tough guy. You pulled up on me, mother.

Yeah, I did. Yeah. Not fishing. You like, bro, get out of here. Like what? What are you trying to do? Act like a tough guy in front of your buddies. No, I'm not dude all these no i'm tough bro all right bro you know get going bro war veterans we're all well thank you for your service bro

thank you for your service bro but that doesn't give you the right. All right, bro. All right, whatever. I appreciate, I appreciate you for your service, bro, but you don't got to run through the middle of the bridge, bro. That's not my guy, bro. That's just another dude, bro. My lights were on, bro. My lights were on bro my lights were on you die nothing happens to me right okay bro keep thinking that all right bro keep thinking that put your lights on bro my lights were on i wasn't sitting there okay that's not my dude bro bro i Bro, I said, bro, you almost hit him. The other dude was fucking you out. Bro, you shouldn't come flying through the middle of the bridge.

You know people fish here, bro. I'm sorry, man. I don't know if that's what you want to hear, bro. But bro. Me. Me too, bro. I'm out here all the time, bro All right, I'm the best tour captain you'll ever be All right, bro

Chill bro Chill chill bro please bro please okay please bro please bro please bro bro i'm a kid bro please oh i'm sorry bro i'm sorry bro you're gonna cuss me the all right bro no bro please bro please bro okay please i'm sorry bro that was not me I know I was here, but my buddy was on the boat. I'm a kid, bro. Please. I don't care. You don't cuss me out. All right. Shit to me, my sir. Don't do it. I'm sorry, man. I wasn't like cussing you out though bro i was driving the boat okay did you not call me a no bro that was that was my friend on the okay i'm sorry bro i'm sorry bro i'm looking at it yes sir yes sir do it sorry bro like i appreciate y'all bro like i'm sorry bro bro yes sir

all right so yeah you can clearly hear in this video gage is terrified he's initially standing up for himself, basically saying like, hey, like I get it, you're upset, but I have nothing to apologize for. That wasn't me. I didn't say it, but clearly Brock Horner's not going to hear this or listen to it. And he keeps getting closer. He eventually boards the boat and Gage is like, hey, dude, like, what are you doing? I'm just a kid. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He finally starts apologizing. Once again, for something he didn't even have a part in specifically and simply because he's afraid of what this guy, this grown man is going to do. And I found it disgusting that the four other men on the boat did not intercede until things

got like very, very heated. At no point did these four other men tell their other grown ass man friend, hey, it's just a kid. Chill the hell out, dude. Like slow down on the beers, you know, because it's 730 p.m. This guy, Brock Horner, in my opinion, has clearly been drinking. Otherwise, what the hell are you thinking? You're not even using your brain here. And he has some criminal. He has a record. Yeah, he's a record. Drinking DUI, things like that. that he's a record, things like that. DUIs, violent behavior, things like that. Can I push back a little bit on the four other guys without

knowing the context? And you might've already vetted this. He is a charter boat captain. So I do wonder if these were clients and they might've been, now they could have still stepped in. You would do that in front of your clients? Well, why would you board a kid's boat at all? I mean, clearly this guy's not thinking rationally, but I do wonder, and I could be, like you said, it's 7.30 at night, not prime fishing. I do wonder if they were all out there, buddies having beers.

More than likely that's what happened, but I will give them some grace because I don't know the context. If it turns out these guys are clients and they don't personally know Horner, I still think they could have stepped in and it looks like they did, like you said, at the end there where they're like, yeah, get back on the boat. But I do wonder if they're clients and they're seeing this guy go off the rails going, what are we just pay this dude to take us out fishing? I don't care.

It's a bystander effect. I would have knocked that. I would have knocked his ass right into the water if he was acting like that. Honestly, I don't care if you're if I'm a it's even worse if I'm paying you and you're forcing me to like witness this this whole thing. And like as the client, I'm like, what's going to happen? I don't know this this boat captain. Does he have a gun? Does he have a knife? Am I about to watch this kid get murdered in front of me? You know, I'm going to put a stop to it. But either way, Captain Brock Horner, who previously owned Tarpon Coast Fishing Charters, and you can hear in this video, described himself as the best charter boat captain around. He's been arrested.

Shocker. Yeah, he was arrested on April 4th after police in Florida said he was filmed unlawfully boarding a fisherman's boat amid a verbal confrontation. He's been charged with burglary, with assault or battery, non-forced entry. And Chief Pam Smith of the police department said this type of behavior will not be tolerated in our waterways or anywhere else in our city. Good, good. Nor should it be. And I'm really glad that something happened because typically you see things like this go down. And if Gage hadn't been filming, didn't have it on

camera, who knows? It would have been a he said, she said, or he said, he said kind of thing, like his word against this awesome charter boat captains. And I will say that Brock and his lawyer have come out with a statement. The lawyer says, quote, Brock is not proud of how he acted, but it's important to remember, we are not the sum of our worst day. That video captured one moment, not the whole of who he is. Since the video went viral, Brock's business has been destroyed, his reputation damaged, and his family, including his wife and mother,

have been harassed and even threatened. Some have gone so far as to question his military service and accuse him of stolen valor. We live in a time when online outrage can quickly spiral into personal destruction, but just as Gage showed grace in the moment, I ask others to do the same now. Let's hold people accountable, but also give them room to grow and make amends, end quote. Okay, I have thoughts. First of all, Gage did not show grace in that moment. Gage was terrified for his life. So when he's apologizing and calling this boat captain, sir, it's not because Gage believes he genuinely did anything wrong. It's not because Gage has respect for this raving lunatic of a man.

It's because he's afraid. He was intimidated. That was not him showing grace. And he posted it on his YouTube channel saying he hopes he can save other people from Captain Brock Horner. So no, let's not act like Gage is over here being the forgiving person because he might have some sort of like wrongdoing in this or he might have some part in this. No, he was intimidated. And then he posted the video so other people could be warned about this crazy lunatic person. Now, do I agree with Brock's wife and mother being harassed? No. But I also thought about this when I first saw the video on TikTok. I said, oh man, everybody's recording everybody, and no, we don't want to cancel people just because they're having

a bad day. But then I said to myself, Stephanie, even on your worst day, even on your worst day, would you do this to a complete stranger? No, no, no, I would not. So it shows me that this Brock Horner guy kind of thinks maybe he's above the law a little bit. Maybe he's got a little bit of a big head. Maybe he thinks he sort of owns these waterways and everybody has to like bow to him. And maybe he has a problem with anger, possibly also alcohol. So if what you needed was a wake-up call of hitting rock bottom and having things taken from you that you clearly didn't appreciate because you wouldn't have been acting like a damn fool if you did, maybe that's what you needed to get some counseling, some therapy, help with your anger issues.

Maybe get off, stop drinking alcohol. Clearly, it doesn't bring out the best in you. That's my opinion. Maybe this is what you needed right now to get your life back on track so that you're not going to be in a boating accident one day and kill yourself or hurt yourself, which would also destroy your family because you can't control yourself. Maybe you're not going to get into an altercation with somebody who's going to pull out a gun or a knife and kill you because you're running your mouth. Maybe this is what you needed so that you can start living a better life where you treat people with respect and you don't become

everybody's enemy. That's all that I'm going to say about it. I obviously don't want his wife and mother to be harassed, but am I sad that his business has been destroyed? No, not really. Not really. I think he needs to rebuild. He needs to get better. He's got some issues. And I don't think that he had any right to do what he did. And who knows? If those four guys weren't there, who knows? Would he have hit this kid? Would he have actually, you know, pushed him even accidentally, you know, killed him by like the kid gauge slipping and hitting his head or falling into the water? Who knows? This just isn't necessary. This isn't necessary.

It doesn't go anywhere good. Yeah, no, I agree with the overall sentiment that obviously this is this behavior is inexcusable. And clearly there's some issues going on because this isn't the first time that Brock has had to run in with the law. It appears that he has some issues with alcohol. I don't know what his service was like. Maybe he experienced some things over there. Maybe he has some PTSD. I don't know. We don't know all the context of it. And I agree with you as far as harassing his wife and his mother-in-law or mother, whoever it is. We all know the internet can take it too far.

I'm not making excuses for him, but I always love to give the other side of the coin. This guy is not, as far as we know, he didn't harm a child like some of the cases we talk about. I agree with everything you said as far as having to rebuild a business, start over again, maybe learn from this. But there are people out there, you know this as well as I do, that will take an interest into this to an unhealthy level. Oh, for sure. And that's where it gets scary for me, where people are out there now and they'll probably attack his house and do all these. Basically, two wrongs don't make a right. He's been arrested.

The law is going to go the way it's going to go. He's going to be held responsible for what he did. The lawyer for him is not even making excuses. They're basically saying, Hey, he effed up. He's going to, he's going to be punished for it. Let, let it, let the, let the legal system do its job. And so I agree with that, where we got to let the legal system do his job. If he is as good as he thinks he is at being a charter captain, I'm sure he will still be able, if he rehabilitates himself, go out there, build up a smaller business again, get some of his same clients that he had, and he'll be able to still make a living. But yes, completely agree. Leave his family and friends alone. They didn't condone this. They weren't on that boat. They didn't participate in it. There's no reason to go after him now. He has been identified. He has been arrested. Let the

judicial system do its job. As far as the overall takeaway from this, I do think there's a lesson that can be learned and it's not specific to fishing. I'm glad that Gage posted the video because I do think, and Gage did everything right, but I think we can even take it a step further. When you encounter someone who clearly is not in the right state of mind and only wants to escalate the situation, they're not interested in de-escalation. You have to be the bigger person and just remove yourself from it. In that moment. Yeah. There's nothing Gage could have said that was going to make it better. And by arguing with this guy, it only made it worse because that's what he wanted. He wanted a fight. He wanted a

physical altercation. So was Gage wrong in his argument? Absolutely not. But all of us have to look at this video and we have to learn from it. That's what Crime Weekly is about. Keeping you safe. Sometimes, and this is coming from a guy who struggles with it at times as well, you just have to put the ego aside and say, there's no way I'm going to win this argument. I have to be the bigger person and step away. Don't get the final word in. Don't say your last remarks. Turn around, walk away. Let the person call you whatever they want.

They want to call you a P word, whatever they want to call you. Yep, that's fine. I'm scared. You're right. I'm wrong. I'm walking away because in the world we live in now, and we're seeing other examples of it. We were talking before recording about the stabbing that just happened with the twin.

People aren't right. Like you just don't know. You just don't know. What they're going through, what's in their head, what kind of stuff they've. Yeah, it's dangerous. Road rage incidents, just bad. That's it. We live in a world where people are carrying knives and guns and there's other layers to their, what

they're going through. There could be drugs or alcohol involved. So a simple road rage incident or an argument over a boat could turn into a murder. And you have to ask yourself, God, thank God nothing happened to gauge. But if something did happen to gauge, do you think gauge in hindsight would have said, man, I should have just turned the boat around and walked, drove away. Of course. So that's my big takeaway from this is it's not just to this, this specific video. It's the world we live in. You don't know who you're dealing with. You don't know who you're arguing with. It may be something super minuscule and trivial to you, but to that other person who's going through something, it may be life or death for them. So do yourself a favor. Do your family a favor. Do your friends a favor.

Be the bigger person. If you can see that this is not going to end well, walk away. Well, I think with Gage initially too, it was like kind of like, okay, I saw this guy a few days ago. I'm seeing him again today. We share these waterways. We may encounter each other in the future. Let's put this to bed. Let's not have bad blood between us because we kind of run in the same circles. We're on the water together. Yeah. And I think he didn't realize at first because he was coming from a place of logic and level headedness that this Brock guy was just not going to be reasoned with.

And he figured that out and then started to sort of, you know, backpedal and try to pull away. And it was too late. Yeah. Oh, you could tell by Gage's reaction, he didn't think it was going to go there, but just by the tone of his voice, when he boarded his boat, he was, he was petrified. Yes. And he said, he was like, I didn't even want to post this video because I feel weak. Like I sound terrified. It's embarrassing to me, but you know what? He's alive. And that's, what's important here. And in that situation, you're arguing with a wall, basically. You could tell, we're obviously seeing it third party, if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can make your point. But once you realize there's no winning the argument, what are you really going to gain?

You're only going to lose in that situation, potentially your life. So as extreme as that sounds, I'd rather see you just turn the other way. Within an hour, you're going to feel perfectly fine. That's what's important. Any final words from you, Stephanie? No, just we didn't post the whole video. So if you want to check the whole video out, we can post a link or you can find it anywhere. It's all over on social media. We'll also post it everywhere to Gage's YouTube channel where he uploaded the initial and full video. So you can check that out. But yeah, no, I mean, I'm glad that this guy, Brock is getting held accountable. Yeah. Being held accountable. And I think everyone on the

internet should let that happen. Yeah. And I hope he chooses to use this as a learning experience. Once again, there's that quote, I never lose. I either win or I learn, which is like, yeah, bad things happen. I can choose that if I let this crush me or if I learn from it and don't make the same mistakes in the future so that my life is better. That's all that should matter. And Brock is lucky that Gage didn't have a weapon on him. Exactly. That's what I'm saying, man.

It would have been a good argument for self-defense. One day he could encounter somebody who does, you know, right? If he can't get his temper under control. Think about it. It's a stay on your ground state. Well, Brock Horner was saying to Gage, like, oh, yeah, well, if I had hit somebody on your boat, like I, nothing would have happened to me. I would have gone away free and clear. Nothing would have happened to me because it's the law to have your lights on. And it's like, why would you even say that? Like,

why would you, like, I could have killed you and I would have been fine because you weren't doing it. And it's like, why would we, who even thinks like that, man? Like this is insanity. I'm glad the video's out there. A lesson can be learned for all of us. Glad Gage is okay. Glad Brock was caught. We're moving on from it. But I did think it was important to cover because for all of us, when we're talking about safety tips, here's a prime example of just something you can do on your own, deescalate the situation. And sometimes deescalation doesn't involve saying the last thing. It just involves turning away and going the opposite direction.

And as much as it may kill you inside in that moment, you'll be happy with your decision later. So everyone stay safe out there. That's the number one thing. We will see you later this week with a new series. Till then, have a good night.