3 Times Facebook Helped Catch Criminals

Could you imagine Facebook helping to catch criminals? Well, the social media platform has indeed been indirectly responsible for helping the authorities to find criminals more than once. But, why do we say “indirectly”? Does the platform play a minor role in assisting the police? Or what exactly?

Well, let’s put it this way. All three of the stories we are about to tell you, have something in common. Criminals were dumb enough to use Facebook while/after committing a crime. As a result, they got caught. 

That certainly classifies as an indirect involvement from part of Facebook. Doesn’t it? Be that as it may, here are three times Facebook helped to catch criminals.

Photo Confession

We all know there are people who don’t really like the police at all. And up to a certain point, we can understand that. For instance, a young man in Colombia was fined $250 for eating an “empanada” (street vendor food) on the streets. 

Indeed, this was enough to make people mad. However, there is no excuse to tease any policemen at all. As much as we can understand people getting mad about these sort of things, bothering a policeman is crossing the line. 

And if you take things further and commit a crime. Well, good luck. Now, as it happens, a 20-year-old Kentucky man Michael Baker wanted to show how much he disliked the authorities. So, he had no better idea than to steal fuel from a Jenkins Police Department squad car, and upload the evidence to his Facebook account. 

Moreover, he thought it would be funny to show the middle finger while being photographed. Of course, he was caught and spent the night in jail.

Don’t Forget To Log Out 

The idea of a person breaking into a house is to steal everything they can in the least possible amount of time. Otherwise, they could be caught and taken to jail. However, for 19-year-old Jonathan Parker, this rule seemed to mean nothing. 

As a matter of fact, the young boy decided to break into a house and log into his Facebook account. Sure, he ended up stealing two diamond rings. But, to have the nerve of relaxing and checking his Facebook feed? 

The burglar managed to escape without alerting any of the neighbours. And yet, he was caught hours later. So, how did this happen? Well, it turns out the dumb boy had forgotten to do something very important. Logging out of his Facebook account. 

So, when the homeowner arrived, she called the police and let them do their job. In the end, the stolen jewellery was returned, and young Parker was taken into police custody. Kind of makes you wonder why he didn’t just take the laptop too. 

Facebook Friend

We all have “friends” on Facebook that we don’t even know. Sometimes, we simply accept people to make it seem as if we have a lot of friends. And this is precisely what got a 26-year-old man in prison. 

You see, young fugitive Maxi Sopo had just defrauded a handful of Seattle banks out of $200,000. Certainly more than enough money to take a nice vacation. But, here’s the thing. Sopo started bragging about his crime on Facebook. 

What he didn’t know was that among his friends, he had a former Justice Department official. Evidently, the former officer realised what Sopo had done and the rest is pretty much history. The 26-year-old was arrested and convicted to spending 33 months in prison.

Hopefully, this will make people think twice before wanting to commit a crime. Facebook 3 – criminals 0.