If there’s a surefire way to get caught for committing an offense these days, it’s airing the details on social media. Jacob Cox-Brown, an 18-year-old from Oregon, learned that lesson on New Year’s Day when police showed up at his door after they were alerted to a facebook post he wrote about driving drunk, KGW.com reports.
“Drivin drunk… classsic 😉 but to whoever’s vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P,” the status update read, according to the news outlet.
Police said the teen’s apparent Facebook confession wasn’t sufficient evidence for a drunk driving charge. Instead, Cox-Brown was charged with “two counts of failing to perform the duties of a driver,” KGW.com reports. Despite the potential of leaving a very obvious trail, a surprising number of people use Facebook in the aftermath of committing various infractions.
In September, a woman posted an “LOL” status update in reference to her alleged involvement in a drunk driving accident, according to ABC. A judge, who was reportedly not too happy about the post, sentenced her to two days in jail.
In May, two men robbed an Internet cafe, but one of them made the mistake of logging into Facebook and forgetting to log out. The flub led police right to him, Gizmodo notes. Similarly, in 2011, a man who reportedly stole items from Washington Post journalist Marc Fisher posted a picture of himself on Facebook wearing one of the missing items and holding up cash. The suspect had used Fisher’s son’s laptop to take the picture and posted the image to the teen’s Facebook account, advertising his actions to 400 teenagers. “I’ve seen a lot, but this is the most stupid criminal I’ve ever seen,” Officer Kyle Roe told Fisher at the time.
