New Brunswick teens arrested after viral ‘car surfing’ video

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick police say three teenagers were arrested after a vehicle was stolen and the youth allegedly travelled through the province’s southeast corner committing various crimes.

RCMP say they received multiple reports Sunday of “car surfing” on a main arterial road in Moncton, N.B.

A social media video with hundreds of thousands of views as of Wednesday appears to show a boy sitting on the roof of a moving car on Vaughan Harvey Boulevard.

The Mounties say they received reports involving the vehicle in the video as well as the youth suspects, and that the car was reported stolen.

Police believe the three youth are also suspected of break-ins and thefts from businesses and residences in the Memramcook and Scoudouc areas.

Members of the Southeast District RCMP later located the abandoned vehicle in a ditch on La Montain Road in Memramcook, an area about 20 kilometres south of Moncton, say police.

Later on Sunday, members of the Sackville RCMP responded to a report of a break and enter in progress in Memramcook East, according to a police record of events.

Upon arrival, officers engaged in a short foot pursuit and safely arrested a 16-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, both from Moncton. A 14-year-old boy from Moncton later turned himself in to police, the RCMP say.

They were released from custody and are scheduled to appear in Moncton Provincial Court in November.

Cpl. Hans Ouellette, speaking on behalf of New Brunswick RCMP, said Wednesday that no charges have been laid in court in connection with this matter and that an investigation is ongoing.

Police say no injuries were reported in connection with the alleged crimes.

Pamela Fuselli, CEO of injury prevention charity Parachute, says car surfing doesn’t happen too often but she hopes this doesn’t lead to copycats in search of online fame.

“I am hoping that this is not a resurgence or a challenge that is going to be taken up through social media because it is so dangerous,” Fuselli said in an interview.

“We don’t see them very often, but when we do see them, they can be very very dangerous and fatal in some cases.”

Ouellette, the RCMP media relations officer, said he was unable to comment on if there has been an increase in car surfing as police did not have “immediate access to statistics that track this exact type of activity.”

Incidents of car surfing in Canada appear to be rare, according to a review of recent reporting.

Three men were charged in 2018 after a car surfing incident in Kingston, Ont., that left a 23-year-old with serious injuries.

On an early May morning, police said that the injured person had been surfing on the roof while another person was riding on a skateboard and holding on to the moving vehicle.

A year before, 570 News reported a teenager was in hospital with a serious head injury following a car-surfing incident in Kitchener.

A 27-year-old man died in 2016 after a car he was “roof surfing” rolled over in Vernon, B.C., RCMP said.

There were only about a dozen reports of other similar incidents reported on by The Canadian Press between 2000 and 2013.

Meanwhile in July 2024, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan reported it had seen an uptick in car surfing incidents due to a social media trend.

But Jennifer Putney, communications manager for the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, said Wednesday they have not had reported any car surfing incidents recently.

Still, it’s important that youth hear from law enforcement that car surfing and other dangerous acts that include a vehicle are “not OK,” said Fuselli.

“Kids of this age, younger and older, they have a sense of invincibility that they can do anything and nothing will happen to them,” she added.

“Unfortunately, that’s what leads to some of this kind of behaviour and thinking it’s a thrill and not really thinking about the potential consequences.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2026.