People Who Got Arrested For Dumb Social Media Posts!
#1. Selfie Taken With A Dead Victim
A 16-year-old from Pennsylvania faced murder charges after allegedly killing a classmate and sharing a picture of himself with the victim's body over Snapchat.
Maxwell Marion Morton was charged with first-degree murder, after police were shown a photo of Morton at the murder scene of classmate Ryan Mangan, also 16. Morton reportedly shared the picture over Snapchat, but a recipient took a screenshot to save the photo, and his mother contacted the authorities.
#2. Man Repeatedly Tweets About Assassinating President Obama
There are many things that would really be common sense that would be really, really bad to tweet about. Assassinating the president lands squarely in that category. So it should be no surprise that in September 2012, when 21-year-old Donte Jamar Sims posted a series of tweets talking about killing President Barack Obama with "that Lee Harvey Oswald swagg" and an "Assault (sic) Rifle at Barack's Forehead," he was swiftly arrested.
While Sims reportedly was smiling when reading his tweets aloud to the Secret Service, who knocked on his door just a few days later, he later apologized for his stupidity. That apology came up just a wee bit short though as he was later sentenced to six months in prison for knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of the president.
#3. Tourists Ruin Historic Landmark For Instagram Post
Two American girls, aged 21 and 25, broke off from their tour group while on vacation in Rome, Italy and decided to use a coin to carve their initials into the walls of a structure that was built just slightly more than 2000 years before the dawn of social media. Other tourists in the historic landmark reported the vandalism to guards and the pair were arrested for aggravated damage to a building of historical and artistic interest. The girls could see a fine of up to 20,000 Euros as a similar fine was imposed upon a Russian tourist who vandalized the structure about a year before. No word on how many likes the selfie received.
#4. Sick FB Post About Missing Girls Lands Him Behind Bars
Taking sick jokes to a whole new and very much criminal level, meet Matthew Woods. This British teen had the brilliance to post jokes on Facebook stating "I woke up this morning in the back of a transit van with two beautiful little girls, I found April in a hopeless place." and "Who in their right mind would abduct a ginger kid?"
Now out of context, these might not seem something that would land him behind bars, but considering there were two little girls missing at the time, a highly covered story by the news media, no one was laughing at his comments. Woods, who claimed a defense of intoxication, spent three months in the pokey on charges of sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive.
#5. 11 Month Old Child's Photograph Gets Parents Into Trouble
A 19-year old Florida mother was arrested after posting this photograph on Facebook of her 11-month old son seemingly smoking from a bong. Authorities determined that the photo was staged and the child had not actually smoked anything. However, the mother was still fined for drug paraphernalia and forced to undergo an evaluation of her parenting ability.
#6. Arrested For Criticizing a Memorial
India's controversial Information Technology Act came under fire in 2012 when two women were arrested for criticizing a memorial service on Facebook. When the entire city of Mumbai closed down in memory of controversial right wing political leader Bal Thackeray, Shahien Dhada and a friend posted well mannered and sensible arguments against the closing of the city in honor of someone they believed only earned respect through fear.
A political supporter of Thackeray spotted these posts and reported them to local authorities which lead to the arrestment of the two friends.
#7. "Catch Me if You Can" Tweet
Wanda Lee Ann Podgurski, 60, had allegedly taunted law enforcement authorities after she disappeared, including a tweet thought to be directed at D.A. Bonnie Dumanis: "Catch me if you can."
Podgurski was arrested in Rosarito by the Fugitive Task Force. The case, and taunting tweet, had been turned over to the U.S. Marshal and the Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team, authorities said.
