COLUMBIA STATION — A 55-year-old Liverpool Township woman wasn’t amused when she was secretly filmed by a film crew that was apparently working for Johnny Knoxville, of “Jackass” fame.
Instead of signing a release and taking cash, Sheri Bement called the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office to complain.
Capt. James Drozdowski said it doesn’t appear that any crime was committed, but Bement “was upset and she had a right to be.”
Bement said that she arrived at what she thought was an estate sale at 16877 S. Boone Road on Thursday only to be asked to help carry a body to a freshly dug grave.
Bement said she was greeted at the door by what seemed like an older gentleman — who may have been Knoxville dressed in character — and his grandson.
They showed her items in the house for sale and the man told her his wife had died.
“I said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,’ ” Bement said.
“He said, ‘I’m having a little trouble with the funeral home — they don’t want me to bury her in the backyard,’ ” Bement said.
“He pulled a sheet down and there was what looked like a body,” Bement said. “He said, ‘Just grab her feet.’ ”
Bement said the youngster also begged her for help and the older man asked her to hold the door for him as he carried the “body.”
The door was already open and there was a hole and mound of dirt in the back yard, she said.
Stunned, Bement said she made her escape to her car while the man was hollering “Could you just stay for the memorial service?”
Once at her car, she said she was surrounded by men including one in a security uniform who told her they were making a movie. She said one of the men told her “Candid Camera” and she replied, “I don’t think that show is on anymore.”
Knoxville’s publicist, Amanda Silverman, did not return a phone call or email seeking comment. A publicist for Paramount Pictures was unable to say what was being filmed.
The “grave” with some rose petals still was at the South Boone Road site, as well as a smelly bucket with a logo Knoxville’s production company with the words “fish guts” scrawled on top.
Mike Salomone, a neighbor on South Boone Road, said he took some photographs of the “old man” and believes it was Knoxville in a recurring character from the “Jackass” movies.
“From what I understand, he was dressed as the old man,” he said.
As for Bement, she said she refused to sign a release, which displeased the film crew.
One man asked her, “What if I offered you cash?”
“I said, ‘No way. This is sick,’ ” she recalled. “It’s like hiding in someone’s back seat or jumping out from behind a curtain. One lady who works with me said, ‘I would have had a heart attack.’ ”
Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.
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