Some criminals are incredibly intelligent,
able to evade justice for months, years, or even a lifetime. Others… not so much. Even those who break the law can fall victim
to the powerful urge to share their lives online, overriding their common sense completely. Today, we’ll be looking at 10 of the dumbest
criminals who were caught thanks to social media. Photo Finish In March 2012, incompetent criminal Michael
Baker came upon an unattended police cruiser in Jenkins, Kentucky. While most people would simply walk on by,
20-year-old Baker took a different approach. He grabbed a gas can, stuck a siphon hose
into the car, and had his girlfriend Joann Sendelin snap a charming photo, as he brandished
his middle finger. The fun could have ended there, but Baker
went one step further, proudly posting the photo to his Facebook account. Along with friends and family, Jenkins police
officials also saw the picture, and Baker was consequently arrested and charged with
theft by unlawful taking. Baker explained to local media outlets that
there was hardly any fuel in the squad car, and the whole exercise was intended only as
a joke. He told TV station WYMT, ''We was just standing
there and thought it would be funny to take a picture and then post it on Facebook.'' Sandelin added, “Yeah, we're sorry, but
it was just a joke. I mean if we was going to steal gas, we wouldn't
put it nationwide on Facebook. We don't steal anyway, but we're sorry.” Police Chief Allen Bormes told media that
if Baker was willing to steal from the police, he’d steal from “just about anybody.” Despite his impressive explanation and his
girlfriend’s heartfelt apology, Baker spent the night in jail as a result of this photo
opportunity. After he was released, he got right back on
social media, posting, “just got out of jail. Yea lol I went too jail over facebook.” Sounds like he learned his lesson, right? Thursday Night Live Kevin Gaines Jr. of Deland, Florida was a
wanted man in November 2019. The 20-year-old was sought by police on several
charges: possession of a firearm by a delinquent, grand theft auto, criminal mischief, and having
no valid driver’s license. He was also considered armed and dangerous. You’d think with that list, Gaines would
want to keep a low profile. Think again. After successfully evading authorities for
about a month, Gaines made an interesting decision on December 26th: he went live on
Instagram. Little did he know, a police deputy had spotted
the car Gaines had stolen, parked at a house on Beresford Avenue in Deland. As Gaines broadcast to his Instagram account
inside the house, a group of police officers was gathering outside, with the live feed
confirming Gaines’ location. "Dave, get to house... He just shut his live off and said - ‘the
cops are here’" When Deputy Billy Leven shone a spotlight
into a window of the home, the light was visible in the Instagram video, which ended rather
suddenly when Gaines realized he’d been caught. "Hey, you can tell him to either come on out,
or we’re gonna write a search warrant and we’ll go in a get him. "Yeah he was on a live video, and as soon as
he saw the blue lights, he shut the live video off and they said ‘Man, hurry up cuz, they’re
here’" "Get on the ground now." "Get on the ground now." "You want to secure this house? because we’ve
got a gun in here." Gaines surrendered to the authorities, who
found three firearms inside the house, plus one underneath a car in the driveway. He was successfully arrested on the many charges
he had racked up, before giving himself up on Instagram. Facebook Fool British man Michael Ruse was on trial for
assault in June 2012. The 21-year-old was accused of violently attacking
his friend’s father using a baseball bat and a baton, and he had entered a not guilty
plea. Being tried for a crime is pretty stressful,
but Ruse wasn’t worried about being convicted. In fact, as the trial progressed, he was so
convinced that he’d be found not guilty that he shared his high hopes on his Facebook
account. Ruse did use a pseudonym on Facebook, posting
under the name Michael Miles, but that didn’t protect him from the consequences of his foolish
words. Throughout his two-week trial, he shared gems
like - “Nearly time to leave for crown and see the stuck up judge!” But the stupidest moment of all came when
Ruse shared an update that said: “Another week at court.” A friend commented on the status asking about
his case, and Ruse unbelievably responded, - “Yeah I think I got away with it tbh.” He even managed to misspell “got.” Six people liked this incredibly foolish status
update, but one of Ruse’s Facebook friends with a taste for justice printed the evidence
and got it into the hands of prosecutors. Since he had been caught essentially confessing
to the crime, Ruse had almost no choice but to change his plea to guilty. Ian Pearson, the judge presiding over the
case, told Ruse, “You pleaded guilty part way through the trial only really because
you were stupid enough to put on Facebook what amounted to a full confession.” Ruse was sentenced to 46 weeks in prison for
the assault. After the incident, Ruse’s attorney told
the media that the young man “needs help with regards to thinking skills.” That sounds like a serious understatement. A Sobering Experience Florida resident Whitney Beall made a very
dangerous decision in October 2015: after a night of partying, she drove home drunk. But Beall didn’t stop at just one stupid
choice; she also decided to use the Periscope app to live-stream her reckless journey. Beall can be heard on the video declaring: - "If you’re not new, I'm driving home drunk." "Let's see if I get a DUI..." In the USA people Let's see if I get a DUI I don’t think I will..." Amid the sound of fellow drivers honking at
Beall, she noticed how many viewers were tuning into her bad idea, saying: “57 people! Oh my God, I didn't know I'd get this many
people. I am super drunk in the USA and the light
is red I promise." (It wasn't) But don’t worry, Beall obviously had safety
on her mind, too. She told her shocked Periscope viewers: “It’s not cool... Driving drunk is not cool.” Some of those watching the video feed called
911, and a Lakeland police officer was able to locate Beall’s car by logging into the
livestream. She was pulled over and arrested after failing
a field sobriety test. On the way to the police station, Beall reportedly
threw up in the back of the cruiser. Whitney Beall pleaded no contest to a charge
of driving under the influence. She was sentenced in February 2016 to 12 months
of probation, alcohol evaluation and treatment, a 10-day impound of her vehicle, and a six-month
suspension of her license. These are standard consequences for drunk
driving, but Beall was also sentenced to 150 hours of community service and 10 days of
weekend work release, as a result of her decision to publicize her poor choices. “Let's see if I get a DUI.” Cashing In 29-year-old, Arlando Henderson, began working
at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina in April of 2019. By December of the same year, he would be
arrested in San Diego on suspicion of stealing almost $90,000 from the bank, after his own
social media posts helped alert authorities to his crimes. Within just two months of starting his job
at Wells Fargo, Henderson began using his access to the bank vault to steal money from
customer deposits. He pocketed cash on nearly 20 separate occasions,
starting small with a theft of $446, and working his way up to higher amounts. On July 15, 2019, he took a whopping $13,450
from the vault. Henderson was not only pocketing money, but
also covering up his theft by falsifying bank documents, creating fake deposit tickets and
making false entries. He was very careful to hide his illegal activity
at the bank itself, but it was another story completely when it came to Henderson’s social
media accounts. Henderson was not shy when it came to bragging
about his finances online. Over the summer of 2019, he uploaded photos
of himself holding impressive stacks of cash. He also shared pictures of a Mercedez-Benz
he had purchased using a $20,000 cash down payment. This suspicious activity, along with large
ATM deposits, attracted the attention of investigators, leading to Henderson’s eventual arrest. The charges against Henderson included financial
institution fraud, 19 counts of theft, embezzlement, and misapplication, and twelve counts of making
false entries. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty
to bank fraud and transactional money laundering on March 20, 2020. Henderson appeared to have aspirations as
a rap artist and often used the nickname “AceeyFoez” online. Ironically, he’d adopted the catchphrase,
“Aint Wit Being Broke.” To Comment or Not to Comment? In March 2015, Andrew Dale Marcum had an experience
on Facebook that most of us never will: he came across his own wanted photos. The Butler County, Ohio Sheriff’s Office
had posted photos of 21-year-old Marcum to their Facebook page in an effort to track
him down. There were several outstanding warrants on
Marcum, including for assault, abduction, and burglary, which is why so many people
were surprised when he used his personal Facebook account to comment on the post. Somehow not realizing that it was a bad idea
to announce himself on a post identifying him as a criminal suspect, Marcum commented,
“I ain't tripping half of them don't even know me." The sheriff’s office wasted no time in responding,
“If you could stop by the Sheriff's Office, that'd be great. Hey, it doesn't hurt to ask.” A neighboring county’s police department
even joined in on the absurd comment thread, asking Marcum to “Please stay in Butler
County.” Then Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones
brought Twitter into the mix, tweeting a picture of a jail cell with the message “Hey Andrew
Marcum we’ve got your room ready…” The interactions went viral, with many pointing
out how foolish it was for a wanted man to publicly communicate with law enforcement. It didn’t take long for Marcum to realize
he was in over his head and the 21 year old turned himself in. The sheriff’s office updated their interested
followers with the news: “Andrew Dale Marcum will be off Facebook temporarily, because
there is no social media access in the Butler County Jail. He's turned himself in. Thanks to our Facebook and Twitter friends
for helping turn up the heat." Despite his bravado on Facebook, Marcum didn’t
hold up so well in real life, judging by his tear-stained face in his mugshot. Travel Trouble Melina Roberge and Isabelle Lagace took a
big risk when they embarked on an Instagram-worthy vacation, and they paid a big price. In 2016, the pair of Canadian women boarded
the MS Sea Princess for a seven-week cruise travelling from Britain to Ireland, the United
States, Bermuda, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Australia. But thanks to a tipoff, when the ship docked
in Sydney on August 28, police dogs discovered 35 kilos of cocaine stashed in suitcases in their cabin. Including the drugs found elsewhere on the
ship, the entire haul was worth around $16 million. Roberge had been approached to take the extensive
trip by a wealthy Canadian man she would not identify but called “her sugar daddy.” They’d met in 2015, when Roberge began working
as an escort for the man, and he had offered her the free vacation in May 2016. Not only would she not have to pay for travel,
she’d be given spending money and an additional sum when she got home. Roberge would be a decoy; she’d room with
Lagace, who was on the trip to pay off a debt of her own. Their job was to look pretty and throw off
any suspicion about the drug smuggling that was the true purpose of the cruise. Roberge assumed the amount of drugs being
moved would be small, a few kilos at most. The money and the travel were enticing, but
even more attractive was the opportunity to fill her Instagram account with photos of
her luxury journey. And the Instagram content was impressive. The Australian tabloids dubbed the beautiful
Robege and Lagace “cocaine babes,” and the lifestyle they documented on social media
did seem lavish indeed. They shared photos from the luxury cruise
ship and from the exotic destinations where it stopped: New York, French Polynesia, Peru,
the Caribbean. Two days before the ship arrived in Sydney,
the women’s luggage was stuffed with cocaine by others involved in the crime. They were told to pass through customs with
the drugs, but they never had the chance. In April 2018, Roberge was sentenced to eight
years in an Australian prison for her part in the smuggling attempt. Lagace was sentenced in November to seven
and a half years. Both women are likely to spend four years
and nine months there before being deported back to Canada. Their fellow Canadian smuggler, 65-year-old
Andre Tamin, was sentenced to eight years as well. Insta-gang What’s the first thing a thief does when
he successfully pulls off a job? In the case of this gang, the answer is sharing
the evidence on Instagram. In November 2019, a group of young men who
stole luxury cars in Leeds, England decided they should brag about their crimes on social media. They created an Instagram account called Mr
Dingers and began posting photos and videos of themselves, posing with the stolen vehicles. The thieves took care to hide their identities,
even while publicizing their illegal activity. “Rob the bus light” "Burglars from the endz." "Yo, what about it bro?" "Little legends…” “Ah, nah nah nah nah” 21-year old Frankie Allwork shared a photo
of himself in front of a stolen Audi A6 worth nearly $85,000, his face obscured by an emoji. 20-year-olds James Holroyd and Bryn Kerry
posed in similar pictures, and a video shared on January 7, 2020, where they drove the stolen
Audi. That video alone garnered more than 30,000
views. Unfortunately for these young men, the West
Yorkshire Police were already hard at work investigating a series of car thefts in the
area that had taken place over a period of several months. When CCTV footage captured Allwork tossing
a cigarette butt into some bushes, investigators were able to retrieve it and test it for DNA,
which broke the case wide open in February 2020. Once the trio were in custody, police also
found the original incriminating photo of Allwork, with his face clearly visible, on
one of their mobile phones. It’s hard to argue your innocence when you
documented the crime yourself. All three Instagrammers admitted to burglary
and theft charges in Leeds Crown Court. Allwork was sentenced to four years and six
months, Holroyd to 34 months, and Kerry to 32 months. Perhaps social media fame isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be. Picture This In May 2015, 23-year-old Dominyk Antonio Alfonseca,
robbed a bank in Virginia Beach. He walked into the establishment, handed the
teller a note demanding cash, received it, and left. At this point, most thieves would be satisfied
with a job well done, but Alfonseca didn’t stop there. Within 20 minutes of the robbery, he’d just
pulled off, he managed to share a photo and video evidence of the act on his Instagram account. Alfonesca posted two videos of the robbery
itself, plus a picture of the note he’d handed to the teller. It read: "I need 150,000 bands right NOW!! Please. Police take 3 to 4 minutes to get here. I would appreciate if you ring the alarm a
minute after I am gone…. make sure the money dosen't [sic] BLOW UP
ON MY WAY OUT :-)" When asked about his Instagram activity, Alfonesca
claimed that he wanted the police to know that he wasn’t armed, and, of course, he
wanted to share what he was doing. An aspiring rapper, Alfonesca was also looking
to gain followers on the platform, hoping a big name in the music industry might see
his posts. Police located and arrested Alfonseca, with
a gym bag full of the stolen cash, less than half an hour after the crime. He later admitted that he’d asked the teller
for money and then took it from the bank, but suggested he wasn’t guilty of robbery,
because he’d asked politely. “A robbery is demanding..." "Going and demanding something and taking the
money or whatever like that." "I didn’t do that…” Regardless of this bulletproof logic, he was
sentenced in 2016 to two years and 11 months in prison. Catch Me If You Can 27-year-old Rashia Wilson was a typical mother
of three… who managed to steal an estimated $20 million from the IRS. In 2010, police in Tampa noticed a decrease
in drug dealing in the city, which suggested a different kind of lucrative criminal activity
had taken its place. That activity was tax fraud, as discovered
in a two-year, multi-agency investigation. Scammers were using stolen Social Security
numbers to file fraudulent tax returns. Wilson, rather than laying low and enjoying
her profits, chose to fund a noticeably lavish lifestyle for herself and her children, share
incriminating photos of herself holding huge stacks of cash, and to proudly proclaim on
Facebook, that she was involved in the scam. Her incriminating post read, “I'm Rashia,
the queen of IRS tax fraud… I'm a millionaire for the record, so if you
think indicting me will be easy it won't, I promise you! you need more than black and white to hold me
down and that's to the rat who went and told, as if 1st lady don't have the TPD under her spell. I run Tampa right now.” As if this social media confession wasn’t
telling enough, police also discovered expensive designer items and an unusual number of security
cameras at Wilson’s home in Wimauma, Florida. Wilson pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated
identity theft. During her trial, she claimed her Facebook
was hacked and that she didn’t write the bragging status that sealed her fate. Despite this flimsy excuse, she received a
21-year- sentence in 2013 and was ordered to pay $3.1 million in restitution. After successfully appealing in 2014, Wilson
was resentenced in 2015 to the same term. Which of these self-incriminating criminals
do you think was the most foolish? Have you ever witnessed a dumb criminal in
action on social media or in real life? Let us know in the comments below. And as always, thanks for watching!
