German Government Tries To Neuter FOI Requests By Refusing To Allow Responses To Be Published

Found Him: This Has To Be THE Dumbest Criminal

from the sharing-is-caring dept

Tue, Feb 11th 2014 7:49pm — Timothy Geigner

In our ongoing coverage of the crossroads of technology and stupid criminals, we've seen quite a bit of dumb, ranging from really stupid to the kind of stupid that is so painful one wonders how faith in humanity persists. I now submit to you that we've found the purist expression of stupidity in a criminal known to man.

Meet Anthony Lescowitch, 35, and apparent testimony personified to our failing educational system. Anthony was wanted by police in Freeland (heh), PA, where police helpfully engaged their community by submitting a wanted photo of our criminal and a public BOLO (be on the lookout) on their Facebook page. After all, you never know what helpful citizen will assist law enforcement by sharing that status update with their friends, widening the net for a criminal on the run. Hell, sometimes it's that very criminal who so assists LEOs, as Anthony proved by sharing the status on Facebook.

Lescowitch shared the wanted bulletin minutes after Freeland police posted it on the department Facebook page Monday night, authorities said. He was being sought on assault-related charges.

It takes a lot of cajones for a criminal to share a post seeking his own incarceration and you would think anyone willing to do so would possess a keen criminal mega-mind to rely on so as not to get caught. Anthony does not possess a keen criminal mega-mind. In fact, given his subsequent actions, one wonders whether he possesses basic mental faculties at all.

An officer pretending to be an attractive woman then messaged Lescowitch, according to police. Lescowitch refused the offer of a drink but eventually agreed to meet for a cigarette, and was arrested at the agreed-upon location. After the arrest, police posted this message: "CAPTURED!!!!!! SHARES OUR STATUS ON FACEBOOK ABOUT HIMSELF, CAPTURED 45 MINUTES LATER."

If it took cajones to share the post, it takes some massive combination of hubris and years spent living under power lines to then meet up with a suddenly appearing attractive woman for a smoke. That his capture was then announced via the department's Facebook account only completes the circle of fun. I only wish Anthony had the capability to share the news of his own arrest from prison.

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Filed Under: anthony lescowitch, dumb criminals, freeland, stupidity

40 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 11 Feb 2014 @ 6:13pm

I hope they gave him access to a computer after they arrested him, you know he'd share the 'Captured!' post as well as soon as he saw it.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2014 @ 8:00pm

"Cajones" = drawers.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 11 Feb 2014 @ 8:01pm

Don't knock Freeland.
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ysth (profile), 11 Feb 2014 @ 8:49pm

Where's the CFAA when you need it?
Did the officer (pretending to be attractive, or pretending to be a woman, one can't help but wonder) violate Facebook's TOS in their effort at pretense? Lock 'em up!
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- Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2014 @ 11:35pm
  
  Re: Where's the CFAA when you need it?
  ^
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- DannyB (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 7:06am
  
  Re: Where's the CFAA when you need it?
  > Lock 'em up!
  
  Yep. Didn't the DOJ persecute Aaron Swartz for a crime of similar magnitude? Violating a TOS. Downloading publicly available information in large quantities. Leaving a computer in a publicly accessible location.
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Angel (profile), 11 Feb 2014 @ 8:49pm

I'll just quote my Dad "There are no smart criminals in jail, because the smart ones don't get caught"...lol
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- jd2112 (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 5:55am
  
  Re:
  Smart criminals open a bank rather than trying to rob one.
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  - DannyB (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 7:07am
    
    Re: Re:
    Smart thugs and bullies become police officers.
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  - Mason Wheeler (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 10:16am
    
    Re: Re:
    A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.
    -- Howard Scott
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2014 @ 7:50am
  
  Re:
  "There are no smart criminals in jail" because they're all in Washington D.C.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2014 @ 9:38pm

I would have loved to be at Freeland PD when this guy shared the article about himself just to see the cops reaction to it. I can just imagine them all behind a computer laughing their asses off as they chat with him and goad him into meeting up for a smoke.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2014 @ 9:47pm

You could say it was...

*sunglasses*

From BOLO to YOLO.
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- Anonymous, 12 Feb 2014 @ 4:59pm
  
  Re:
  BOLO = Be on the lookout? Wouldn't that be BOTL? Or was that one already taken?
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- btrussell (profile), 13 Feb 2014 @ 12:30am
  
  Re:
  You only live once so you may as well be behind bars?
  
  Gimme your sunglasses.
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  - Anonymous, 13 Feb 2014 @ 3:21pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Corey Hart borrowed them. He likes to wear them at night.
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paean, 11 Feb 2014 @ 10:04pm

Liking the police story isn't what got him captured. The police messaged him on Facebook and lured him to a place where they captured him. They can do that with anybody they're looking for. It really doesn't say anything good about the Freeland police that they had to wait for this guy to get in touch with them before they tried to track him down on Facebook.
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- Arthur Moore (profile), 11 Feb 2014 @ 10:41pm
  
  Re:
  No, but it was still really stupid. Plus, this guy violated rule #1 of the internet. If a stranger says they want to meet online it's a trap.*
  
  Hell, using an account tied to you as someone wanted by the police is dumb to begin with. Even without trying to track the IP address, most browsers offer "location services" which are accurate enough to tell what building you're in.
  
  *That's what they taught me in school at least, right along with the D.A.R.E. program. Might explain part of the problem online dating sites have had in the past.
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  - silverscarcat (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 1:37am
    
    Re: Re:
    Actually, that's rule 2, rule 1 is never give out your personal information.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2014 @ 2:26am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      And who attempts override rule number 1 in furtherance of $$$ (& as a concession to law enforcement)? Google+, FaceBook, etc.
      
      Why are you a member of such services? Because you're a masochistic imbecile.
      
      [F]ace
      [B]ook
      [I]ncorporated
      
      Can they make it any more obvious to your ass?
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    - Michael, 12 Feb 2014 @ 9:47am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      I thought rule #1 of the internet was "don't talk about the internet"
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2014 @ 10:12pm

Who wrote this article a 15 yr old? How the f*^k did you get a job writing anything more than the list of ingredients on gum wrappers?
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- Ole Juul (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 12:26am
  
  Re:
  I don't know about the person's age, but it's someone who uses Facebook.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2014 @ 3:04am
  
  Re:
  Hey, Mr. Geigner embodies the best youthful elan in conjunction with the best adult cynicism! (and he has a funny avatar, to top it off!)
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ECA (profile), 11 Feb 2014 @ 10:54pm

i STILL LIKE THIS ONE BETTER.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/world/middleeast/suicide-bomb-instructor-accidentally-kills-iraqi- pupils.html?_r=0

Terrorist trainer, kills self, 22 others, and wounds a bunch more..
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- Michael, 12 Feb 2014 @ 9:48am
  
  Re: i STILL LIKE THIS ONE BETTER.
  How better to train people to be suicide bombers than showing them up-close?
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  - The Wanderer (profile), 26 Feb 2014 @ 12:07pm
    
    Re: Re: i STILL LIKE THIS ONE BETTER.
    Reminds me of "The Queen's Own McKamikaze Highlanders"...
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Just Sayin', 12 Feb 2014 @ 12:25am

wait..
I thought Marcus Carab lived in Canada. Is he moonlighting?
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- btrussell (profile), 13 Feb 2014 @ 12:38am
  
  Re: wait..
  People that stupid don't know enough to come in out of the cold so we shipped them all south. It worked well for your parents, not so good for the rest of us.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2014 @ 2:10am

You keep using that word...
The word you're looking for is "cojones", not "cajones". Cajones is drawers.
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Kenpachi (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 4:01am

Please edit the article on those two typos
Cajones = drawers or more loosely it could pass as just boxes.

Cojones = balls, courage, valor.
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- Derek Kerton (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 9:22am
  
  Re: Please edit the article on those two typos
  and purist to purest, too
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madasahatter (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 7:21am

Not quite Darwin Award
This guy is quite at the Darwin Award for stupidity. But his mental faculties are very, very limited and pushing Darwin Award levels of stupidity.
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Pragmatic, 12 Feb 2014 @ 8:30am

I now submit to you that we've found the "purest" expression of stupidity in a criminal known to man.

FIFY

Thanks for the laugh, Tim. About the criminal, I mean.
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AricTheRed (profile), 12 Feb 2014 @ 9:20am

And this is a great example of why I don't use facebook!
My unwillingness to create a facebook account prevents me from doing/saying monumentally stupid things on the internets, except here of course...
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Anonymous, 12 Feb 2014 @ 4:53pm

I have no faith in humanity.
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anonymous coward, 13 Feb 2014 @ 10:48am

Dang Tim, you really let yourself go with this one.

"cajones" "purist" etc.

Also it's inappropriate to suggest that this guy is anything but innocent until proven guilty, y'know?
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dawn, 29 Mar 2014 @ 8:12am

Some people are so stupid.
I bet when the people read the post that the police put on their Facebook page later they were laughing! What a way to encriminate yourself. Wow.
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Lindsay, 31 Mar 2018 @ 10:53am

Brilliant
Anyone who knows jimi knows that he did this intentionally to get caught since the pd couldn't seem to catch him in the 1 street light town of freeland...it's a joke that he had to put it on Facebook for the freeland pd to actually locate his whereabouts ...
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- John B, 15 Apr 2019 @ 3:46pm
  
  Re: Brilliant
  I actually do know Jim and I will say while def an impulsive guy he is a loyal friend .
  I love these fking word nerds on here talking shit , knowing full well they are cyber geeks that wouldnt say shit to any ones face .
  Shit there user names say it all .
  Any Way Jim Good luck Buddy .
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