Did Reddit Predict Jared Fogle's Demise?

Nobody expected Subway’s Jared to be involved in child pornography, but those who met him probably aren’t surprised.

0001 hen Jared Fogle’s home was raided by police on suspicion of possessing child pornography, it seems Subway executives were holding their breath. The sandwich chain‘s upper management reportedly told their stores to cover up any signage featuring Fogle, their spokesman for 15 years. Yesterday, TMZ was the first to report Fogle will plead guilty to possession of child pornography. It looks like all that Jared merchandise will be getting thrown out.

The news is certainly unusual. Who would have expected “the Subway guy”, of all people, to have such a high-profile fall from grace? Well, according to a few Redditors who claim to have met Fogle personally, we really shouldn’t be all that surprised. While nobody straight-up “called it”, hindsight is certainly 20/20. Just check out this Reddit post from last year:

In a thread commenting on a photo of a drunken John Schnatter, better known as “Papa John”, a Reddit user going by MsKittens shared her experience meeting an apparently intoxicated Jared Fogle. “Jared from the Subway commercials is also a drunk a******,” the post reads. “As I was taking a picture with him his hand was moving lower and lower towards my ass. I was about 14 at this time. No thank you.”

If MsKittens is telling the truth (now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type), then one piece of our Reddit puzzle is complete. The other is to be found in this post, which has been backed up by a VH1 article:

“True story,” the latter part of the post reads. “Jared went to my college. He lived above the Subway on campus. I’ve heard from multiple people that when he was in school he was well-known as the guy who rented bootleg VHS pornography tapes from his apartment.”

So Jared made some money off bootleg porn tapes, what’s the big deal? Without speculating too much, it seems Jared may have been more deeply involved in child pornography than what has come to light thus far. The executive director of Fogle’s foundation was arrested on child pornography charges shortly before the raid on Fogle’s Indianapolis home. Child pornography “rings”, whether or not they’re involved in the actual production of child porn, often operate off the grid, so to speak. It isn’t uncommon for “members” of these groups to physically exchange illicit material uploaded to flash drives or burned to DVDs.

Thus, Jared’s propensity to make a buck from bootlegging porn just seems creepy in retrospect. We’re left to imagine what the full extent of his involvement in child pornography really was.