Facebook Burglary? Suspects Caught After Pictures Posted on Social Media Site
An 18-year-old man had been arrested on charges he burglarized a Pittsburgh business with three other teens and then posted pictures of himself and his accomplices celebrating with the loot on Facebook.
"Well, I guess they're just stupid kids," Detective Valerie Milie said. "They thought they could put the pictures out there for their friends who friended them on Facebook to see. But the one kid had 200 friends, but not only were they friends, some of them were relatives who became concerned and called police," according to WPXI.
Isaiah Cutler, who is the only adult suspect, has been in jail since Friday in the Dec. 12 burglary.
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Also charged with the crime is one 17-year-old and two 14-year-olds who police say stole more than $8,000 in cash, cigarettes, candy and checks from the Elliott’s Town Market, according to KDKA in Pittsburgh.
Police also added that Cutler posted the pictures about an hour after the burglary occurred.
“We received information the day after the burglary that these pictures were posted on Facebook, and if you look at the pictures, you can see that the individuals are holding a large amount of cash,” Sgt. Kevin Gasiorowski, of the Pittsburgh Police, said.
The relatives who saw the photos "knew sooner or later the wrong person, the police, were probably going to see these photos," Milie said.
By the time the parents determined what happened, police were already tracking down the teens based on the Facebook photos and surveillance video from the store, Milie said. The grandmother of one boy called police after she was alerted to the Facebook picture by a relative.
"The kids came home with shopping bags full of new Michael Jordan tennis shoes and clothes, and the parents said, 'Where did you get the money?"' to buy those things, Milie said.
