Atter Monydel is a paramedic in Rochester, Minnesota. But on YouTube and other platforms, he’s better known as an “FBI agent” who “humbled” a group of police officers that racially profiled and detained him.
A video of the encounter, titled “This Cop Arrest an FBI Agent 😳,” has earned over 7 million views since being uploaded in April. It shows Monydel telling the officers handcuffing him that, “[Y]ou’ve got the wrong guy. I’m suing all of you,” before quickly cutting to the officers, who appear dumbfounded as they look at the ID taken from his wallet.
“These policemen made a huge mistake by trying to arrest an FBI agent,” says a voiceover. “But watch how they quickly got humbled.”
In reality, Monydel has never worked for the FBI. The incident, which occurred in 2019, shows him being detained because the officers mistakenly believed he fit the description of a fugitive.
The Monydel video is emblematic of a trend of deceptive “police-arresting-undercover-FBI-agent” videos that have generated hundreds of millions of views on YouTube since late last year, according to an Indicator analysis. Indicator searched for such videos using the YouTube API and identified roughly 1,900. Nearly 60 percent of the videos were uploaded in 2025.
Join Indicator to read the rest
“I’m a bit more at peace knowing there are people out there doing some really heavy lifting here - investigating, exposing, and helping us understand what’s happening in the wild. And the rate & depth at which they're doing it..." — Cassie Coccaro, head of communications, Thorn
Upgrade nowJoin Indicator to get access to:
- All of our reporting
- All of our guides
- Our monthly workshops
