Conquer Club

Taping three minutes of “Twilight: New Moon” during a visit to a Rosemont movie theater landed Samantha Tumpach in a jail cell for two nights.

Now, the 22-year-old Chicago woman faces up to three years in prison after being charged with a rarely invoked felony designed to prevent movie patrons from recording hot new movies and selling bootleg copies.

But Tumpach insisted Wednesday that’s not what she was doing — she was actually taping parts of her sister’s surprise birthday party celebrated at the Muvico Theater in Rosemont.

While she acknowledged there are short bits of the movie on her digital camera, there are other images that have nothing to do with the new film — including she and a few other family members singing “Happy Birthday” to her 29-year-old sister at the theater.

“It was a big thing over nothing,” Tumpach said of her Saturday afternoon arrest. “We were just messing around. Everyone is so surprised it got this far.”

She was nabbed when a worker saw her shooting video during the movie, Rosemont police said.

Managers contacted police, who examined the small digital camera, which also records video segments, Cmdr. Frank Siciliano said. Officers found that Tumpach had taped “two very short segments” of the movie — no more than four minutes total, he said.

Tumpach was arrested after theater managers insisted on pressing charges, he said. She was charged with criminal use of a motion picture exhibition. She remained jailed for two nights in Rosemont’s police station until being taken to bond court on Monday, where a Cook County judge ordered her released on a personal recognizance bond that didn’t require her to post any cash.

Rosemont police, though, seemed to sympathize with her situation, she said. “They were so nice to me,” she said.

Tumpach insisted she recorded no more than three minutes while in the theater — and said not all of the video she shot was of the movie. There’s footage of she and her relatives singing to her sister, she said. “We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her in the theater,” Tumpach said.

She also took pictures of family members in the theater before the film began, but an usher who saw the photo session never issued them a warning, Tumpach said.

As ads and previews ran on the big screen, she fiddled with the camera — which she got in July and is still learning how to work — and was surprised to see it took clear videos of the screen.

The footage she shot also includes the pre-film commercials, as well as her talking about the camera and the movie.

“You can hear me talking the whole time,” Tumpach said.

She plans to fight in court the felony filed against her because she said she did nothing wrong — and certainly didn’t try to secretly tape the movie.

“It was never my intention to record the movie,” she said.

Woodruff wrote:However, my first reaction is...why didn't she just ask in advance if it would be ok for her to record the goings-on there at the theater?

TeletubbyPrince wrote:I hope that theatre loses business over this, or something.

TeletubbyPrince wrote:

Woodruff wrote:However, my first reaction is...why didn't she just ask in advance if it would be ok for her to record the goings-on there at the theater?

Because that's stupid and no one would ever do that...

MeDeFe wrote:

“You can hear me talking the whole time,” Tumpach said.

jammyjames wrote:whoah shit thats unlucky... 3 years??

i personally think thats a load of crap.. 4 minutes of a film and if its not even on the screen for some of it. she is clearly not trying to copy the movie..

bunch of money and power hungry bastards

strike wolf wrote:I imagine the jury will find her innocent.

pimpdave wrote:SHE WAS TALKING DURING THE MOVIE

Woodruff wrote:

TeletubbyPrince wrote:

Woodruff wrote:However, my first reaction is...why didn't she just ask in advance if it would be ok for her to record the goings-on there at the theater?

Because that's stupid and no one would ever do that...

No one would ever do what - the polite thing? I recognize that you wouldn't, but I tend to believe most people are more polite than you are.

Serbia wrote:

Woodruff wrote:

TeletubbyPrince wrote:

Woodruff wrote:However, my first reaction is...why didn't she just ask in advance if it would be ok for her to record the goings-on there at the theater?

Because that's stupid and no one would ever do that...

No one would ever do what - the polite thing? I recognize that you wouldn't, but I tend to believe most people are more polite than you are.

If I were in that situation, it never would have occurred to me to ask some movie usher if I had permission to tape my friends/family at our party.

Of course, it never would occur to me to have a birthday party at a theater anyway, so maybe that's not a good example. But still.

Serbia wrote:

Woodruff wrote:

TeletubbyPrince wrote:

Woodruff wrote:However, my first reaction is...why didn't she just ask in advance if it would be ok for her to record the goings-on there at the theater?

Because that's stupid and no one would ever do that...

No one would ever do what - the polite thing? I recognize that you wouldn't, but I tend to believe most people are more polite than you are.

If I were in that situation, it never would have occurred to me to ask some movie usher if I had permission to tape my friends/family at our party.
Of course, it never would occur to me to have a birthday party at a theater anyway, so maybe that's not a good example. But still.

Phantom Lord wrote:Common sense is in short supply these days. The girl should have known that filming in the theater during the movie was a dumb choice. Her talking the whole time further demonstrates her lack of respect for those around her. The manager at the theater is a f***ing moron. He could have just as easily had the police make her delete the recording and then banned her from the theater.

radiojake wrote:3 years jail for wanting to watch that movie seems apt to me....

neanderpaul14 wrote:Well I would never consider asking permission for this. However I would also never consider taping, and talking, at a movie theater for something as frivolous as a birthday party, all the while disrupting the enjoyment of all the other customers. If you can call Twilight enjoyment that is.