Dumb Criminal Posts Facebook Photo Wearing The Dress She Stole Earlier That Day, Is Summarily Arrested

from the dress-to-impress dept

Fri, Jul 25th 2014 5:36pm — Timothy Geigner

At some point, it might become useful for Facebook to release some data on exactly how many dumb criminals have been brought to justice via some aspect of the social media giant. For reasons I can't fathom, it seems like we see this all the time. Criminals share the police station's status update implicating themselves. Fraternities vomit their crimes all over their Facebook pages. Fugitives from the law occasionally post pictures from their vacations, alerting police to their exact whereabouts. It's a brave and utterly stupid new world out there for criminals and they're just not handling it well.

The latest example is Danielle Saxton, who thought it was a good idea to steal a distinctive leopard-print dress (very tasteful) from a clothing boutique and then post pictures of herself wearing the stolen property to Facebook mere hours later.

Police say 27-year-old Danielle Saxton stole from a downtown boutique last week. Then, she posted pictures of herself wearing the merchandise. Investigators say Saxton shared the pics just a few hours after the theft. The images quickly spread on Facebook, and led officers straight to her. Police say the pictures are evidence of shoplifting committed by Saxton. The theft happened at Mortie's Boutique in West Frankfort, where multiple items disappeared last Friday.

It takes a special brand of hubris to put stolen property on display in this manner. Why not just steal the Hope Diamond and dangle it from your ear like the world's most obnoxious earing? The shop's owner, Kert Williams, had security cameras on the premises and posted about the theft on the shop's own social media page. The enterprising, facebook-ing public did a Perry Mason and alerted the authorities, who picked Saxton up for theft. An arrest she feels is grossly unjust, mind you, with some rather impressive reasoning.

“Her excuse was there was nobody in here. We were in the back working, and that she could just take it. You know, not really much of an excuse there,” Williams told News 3.

Well, no, it isn't much of an excuse, but we're not dealing with Carl Sagan here, if you take my meaning. Enjoy those court dates, Danielle. Try not to wear any stolen merchandise to the courthouse, mmkay?

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Filed Under: criminals, social media, stealing

9 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 25 Jul 2014 @ 6:28pm

Going by that logic...
Anyone could go into her house, and take anything they wanted, as long as she wasn't there at the time, and she'd have no room to complain.

I hope at least someone points out the massive hole in her excuse at some point in the trial, shame to let something like that pass by.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jul 2014 @ 1:01am

Re: Going by that logic...
And she is using the pirate argument.

I steal because I can.
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Jeff Cantwell (profile), 26 Jul 2014 @ 6:43am

Dumb thieves
Girl at work had A/C unit stolen from house. Couple heard about it, came by when no one was there, talked about how terrible it was, peeked in her windows, helped themselves to some stuff on her deck. She caught it all on security cam. Posted it on facebook, asking for help IDing the cretins.

They called within the day crying, begging her to take the video down. Brought her stuff back.

Unfortunately, cameras weren't possitioned to catch the A/C stealing meth-head.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jul 2014 @ 9:22am

Re: Re: Going by that logic...
Are you using the idiot argument?
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Nicci Stevens (profile), 27 Jul 2014 @ 5:13am

The production and sale along with possession of that dress should be criminal too.
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Mike L (profile), 27 Jul 2014 @ 12:50pm

A recent one in Chicago
"The man convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 death of a Chicago teenager in Long Beach, Indiana, was ordered back to jail Friday for 40 days for violating his sentencing agreement.

A judge said James Malecek repeatedly violated his G.P.S. monitoring agreement and even attended a Cubs game with his girlfriend in April, posting pictures on Facebook."

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Man-Who-Threw-Fatal-Punch-at-Beach-Party-Ordered-Back -to-Jail-268613972.html
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Michael, 28 Jul 2014 @ 4:55am

Re: A recent one in Chicago
Funny that the police need to find pictures on Facebook to know where a guy wearing a GPS bracelet is.
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Travis, 28 Jul 2014 @ 2:53pm

Pretty lucky
I'm guessing that the brilliant thief was friends with people who shop at the same store she shoplifts from. It's pretty amazing that they just happened to find this woman on social media.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2014 @ 8:07am

I think we found out who Whatever is!
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