Justin Bieber’s so far relatively peaceful stay in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is recording a new album, ended Tuesday.
One of the 19-year-old’s singer’s bodyguards and a driver were arrested over the theft of a photographer’s $10,000 camera outside the Sandy Springs Funhouse arcade.
An unplanned consequence of the incident led to police discovering “small pipes commonly used to smoke marijuana” inside a Cadillac Escalade that was part of the singer’s group.
“Due to the small amount, no charges were filed related to the marijuana,” police said.
The bodyguard at the center of the theft has been identified as Hugo Hesny. The driver was identified as Terrance Johnson but he was not charged.
In a Wednesday press release, Capt. Steve Rose, a spokesman for Sandy Springs Police, said investigators decided not to charge Johnson — a limo service employee contracted to drive one of three Escalades to the Funhouse rented out by Bieber that day.
Rose said Bieber was not outside at the time and was not involved in the incident.
According to Boston Herald , Hesny, 32, was outside Funhouse when he warned a waiting photographer, Jason Winslow, taking snaps in a parking lot that he was too close to where the teen singer would be exiting the arcade.
A police report states Hesny told Winslow to leave but the lensman continued to take photos from farther away. Hesny allegedly chased him, cut him off, opened the door of Winslow’s vehicle, took Winslow’s camera and left in an Escalade.
“The security guard and driver followed and then stopped the photographer’s car in an adjacent parking lot,” Rose said in an emailed statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
“The security guard took the camera from the photographer’s car and both men left and drove to the home Bieber is renting.”
Bieber’s temporary Atlanta pad is the spaceship-resembling mansion owned by ATL record producer, Dallas Austin.
Police arrived at the arcade at around 4:30 pm after Winslow called 911. When Hesny was questioned about the incident by an officer, he admitted chasing Winslow and opening the door of the photographer’s vehicle but denied taking the camera, the police report says.
An officer asked to search the Escalade Hesny was in, but the camera was not found inside.
However, another officer pulled over another Escalade and spotted the camera inside. Police found less than an ounce of marijuana in that vehicle and two large, glass pipes often used for smoking the drug.
Shortly after the camera was found, Hesny admitted to an officer that he took it, the police report says. Hesny told the officer he didn’t intend to keep the camera but wanted to delete the photos.
Hesny stated he hid the camera in another Escalade without telling the driver and then told the driver to drive away, according to the report.
A day after the camera snatch Hesny appeared before a Fulton County Magistrate Court judge on a felony robbery charge.
He was granted $15,000 bond and has been ordered to appear March 12 in Fulton County Superior Court.
This is just the latest incident Hesny is involved in.
He is accused of battery by photographer Jeffrey Binion who claims the bodyguard grabbed him in a choke hold and pushed him while he took pictures of Bieber from a distance outside The Hit Factory recording studio in Miami on June 5, 2013.
Hesny pleaded not guilty to the Florida charge on January 20 and awaits an April 9 Miami court hearing in that case, according to Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts records.