Video: Gilbert teen swiftly arrested after epic bike stunt

You won’t be seeing one viral daredevil flying through Gilbert’s skies anytime soon. Or at least not until the new year.

A video of 18-year-old Gilbert resident Sam Campbell jumping over a residential roadway — median and all — on his red dirt bike has garnered 17 million views on Instagram. Cambell starts in the grass off Recker Road, before jumping over two streets and a median, catching some serious air to land on a grassy patch on the other side.

But after Campbell makes the daring jump — which is replayed from multiple angles — a twist comes at the end of the video. Campbell is arrested by Gilbert police and his bike is taken away on a tow truck.

Turns out the trick by the entrance to the Morrison Ranch neighborhood wasn’t just risky to Campbell’s physical safety, but also risky in the eyes of the Gilbert Police Department and the law.

“That’s careless and outrageous,” Gilbert officer Travis Sheppard told Fox10. “We’ve never hosted X Games, this isn’t a place where the Olympics happen, where sporting on a bike like that’s tolerated. And so, if they want to ride a bike in that fashion, by all means, but that needs to happen on a track. That’s the appropriate place for that.”

Neither Campbell nor the Gilbert Police Department has responded to New Times’ request to comment.

Though the video made its way to the Gilbert Reddit only recently, municipal court records show Campbell was arrested by Gilbert police on a Wednesday afternoon in late October. After spending a night in jail, according to his Instagram account, Campbell was charged with a misdemeanor for reckless driving on Oct. 30. His first hearing after his arraignment occurred on Dec. 1, and he’ll go before a judge again in early January, according to court documents.

“We know my son made an error; he’s very sorry about what he did,” Nick Campbell, the biker’s father, told Fox10. “He’s suffered a whole litany of consequences for it.”

Campbell’s Instagram is filled with videos of the biker doing tricks in Arizona’s desert. But, as his case makes its way through the court system, his beloved bike remains impounded as evidence in Gilbert police custody. A GoFundMe page has been created to help Campbell retrieve his bike from impound. The post, created by Ryder Myers with Campbell as the beneficiary, reads, “we were just trying to have some fun but bro got arrested!!! The cops are relentless out here and have no mercy absolutely anything helps!”

The post has already garnered more than $2,800 in donations. However, Gilbert police said the bike won’t be released until the completion of Campbell’s case through the town’s court, according to Fox10.

Campbell is facing a class 2 misdemeanor, which could result in a judge requiring him to surrender his license or result in the suspension of his driving privileges for up to 90 days, according to the Arizona Revised Statutes. Court records also show that in late July 2024, Campbell also received a ticket from Gilbert police for speeding “greater than reasonable and prudent,” though the case was closed when he completed a defensive driving course the next month. 

This isn’t the only occurrence of bikers using the Morrison Ranch entrance as their own personal jump ramp. Two days before Campbell’s arrest, Gilbert police posted a video on Instagram of a seemingly different biker making the same jump at the intersection. Just like Campbell, the biker was arrested, charged with two counts of reckless driving and his bike was impounded.