Peoria, IL—For almost a full minute, local man Greg Larson basked in the glory of heroism on Saturday after catching a toddler who fell from a second-story balcony at Willow Creek Galleria. But the glow of admiration faded quickly when Larson shifted his focus from the saved child to the mall’s security cameras, launching into an unprompted campaign to secure footage for his TikTok channel.
The incident began when 3-year-old Madison Reed climbed atop a precarious railing while her parents were engaged in a heated argument over scented candles. Witnesses say Larson, standing below at a pretzel stand, acted swiftly when the toddler slipped, sprinting into position and catching her just in time.
For 45 glorious seconds, Larson was the darling of the mall. Shoppers cheered, clapped, and shouted praises, with one woman even declaring, “Not all heroes wear capes!” Larson stood there, cradling the stunned toddler, visibly soaking in the applause.
Then, like a record scratch in human form, Larson looked up at the security cameras. “Oh my god,” he said, his voice filled with sudden urgency. “Did anyone get that on video?!”
Witnesses report that Larson quickly handed the toddler back to her bewildered mother and began pacing in front of the crowd. “That was incredible, right? Like, viral incredible,” he said. “Someone tell me you were recording. No? Nobody? Ugh, okay—where’s the nearest security office? They definitely got it.”
“That’s when I decided to start filming,” said 16 year old Betsy Harrington. “I thought maybe he was going to do something else heroic? I don’t know, I just started recording.”
Mall security officer Dan Grady described what happened next. “He ran up to me and started waving his hands like a maniac, yelling, ‘You guys have cameras, right? I need that footage. It’s for my TikTok.’ I told him I’d need authorization, but he just kept saying, ‘Bro, you don’t get it—this could hit a million views easy.’”
Harrington continued filming as Larson pressed Grady with questions about camera angles, playback quality, and release forms.
“I MUST have a signed release or I can’t monetize this!” Larson is seen yelling in Harrington’s footage.
The mood among the crowd outside shifted rapidly. “At first, I was so impressed by him,” said witness Carol McIntyre. “But then he started yelling about ‘engagement metrics’ and ‘building his brand,’ and I thought, ‘Oh no, he’s one of those people.’”
As the toddler’s mother, Jessica Reed, approached Larson to thank him, she was met with a distracted response. “Yeah, no problem, super glad she’s okay,” Larson mumbled, his eyes glued to the monitors. “Hey, do you think we can simulate that one more time so I can film it? Just dangle her over the edge for a few seconds…TikTok will love it!”. Larson grabbed a teddy bear out of Jessica Reed’s bag to use as the prop.
The crowd’s energy turned from celebratory to confused, then irritated, and finally hostile. “Someone actually yelled, ‘Just shut the fuck up about the goddamned TikTok!’” Grady recalled. “When another guy threatened to throw a pretzel at him, I knew I needed to escort him out for his own safety.”
Larson, however, remained undeterred. “This is my moment and you’re ruining it!” he yelled as he was hurriedly escorted to the parking lot. “You owe me that footage! I’m huge on TikTok, I’ll tell all my fans – this isn’t over!”
As of press time, Larson’s behavior—not his heroics—had gone viral thanks to Betsy Harrington’s footage, which captured him yelling about TikTok algorithms and demanding a re-enactment. The video, sarcastically titled “Hero to Zero!”, amassed millions of views, spawning memes with captions like, “When You Save a Life but Need to Get One.”
Larson, meanwhile, doubled down on his quest for fame. “This is great exposure,” he said in a TikTok live stream later that evening. “People just don’t understand what it takes to go viral. But mark my words: next time, I’ll save two kids.”
Madison Reed has since returned to the mall with her parents, now safely tethered in a leash backpack that—according to her dad—is their “last line of defense against gravity.” When asked about Larson, her dad sighed, “Let’s just say I’m glad the crowd got to him before I did.”
Harrington, however, remains humble about her own newfound TikTok fame. “I don’t know why everyone’s watching my video,” she said. “I just wanted to film something cool. I guess Greg kind of delivered… just not in the way he thought.”
