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Honest Guy Returns Cell Phone, Gets Arrested
You've always been taught that crime doesn't pay, but we were a little distressed to learn that, apparently, honesty doesn't either. Paul Leicester, a college student in Merseyside, UK, was out celebrating his 18th birthday last month when he came across a mobile phone on the ground. Leicester picked up the handset and called the last number dialed, which belonged to a friend of the owner, and told him he'd leave the phone at the local police station. For some reason, upon arriving at the police station, Leicester was arrested, for "theft by finding," whatever that is. He was held for several hours and DNA samples were taken before the charges were eventually dropped. "I thought I was doing the right thing and had it thrown back in my face," Leicester told the Daily Express last week. "It was a shocking experience."
The arrest has been dropped and the circumstances surrounding it are being reviewed, but it might be a little late to make up for locking up a kid on his birthday. [From: Daily Express]
Facebook Crime and Punishment
Blackmail
Sending any personal info or incriminating pictures to someone on Facebook is a huge mistake for many reasons. One of the worst possible outcomes is getting blackmailed for money, sex, or, well, anything these sickos dream up. Really, whether they're using a fake profile or not, it's a horrible idea. Read up on the story of an 18-year-old who blackmailed 31 male classmates after he posed as a girl and asked for nude pictures. That's lesson enough.
Impostors
Sure, it can be harmless to impersonate a celeb online or create a fake profile for a movie character. But seriously, there's a definite line you shouldn't cross when pretending to be someone else and it can lead to dire consequences for you. Maybe it's not as extreme as the Moroccan man who was jailed for 43 days after creating a fake Facebook profile of a prince, but you never know. Just steer clear of it.
Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.
Suicide
Social networking sites has been blamed for a lot of things, fairly and unfairly, but in our opinion, the worst offense has been their indirect involvement in suicides. Obviously, there are a lot of factors responsible in each case, but there does seem to be links between social networking and a rash of suicides, and obviously tehre's the case tragic of Megan Meier, who killed herself after a classmate's mom impersonated a teen boy and harassed her over Myspace.
Murder
We've reported on numerous incidents of people getting in trouble because of their online behavior. Now, people are becoming victims because of what they're doing on the Web too. In England, a man was convicted of murdering his estranged wife after she changed her relationship status to "single." So, be careful of who can see your profile and what you're doing, no matter how harmless it seems.
Nigerian Scammers
Oh, you thought this only happened via poorly worded emails, right? WRONG. Once people got wise to their old ways, these con men are turning to social networking sites for new targets. This time, they're hacking into people's accounts and impersonating them to ask for money, usually with some weird sob story. You can check out a transcript of one of these conversations here.
Cooperation
Even if the law isn't on a case, a victim, his friends, or empathetic strangers might be. Since it's easy to get word out for anything online, people are using blogs, forums, and social networking sites to help track down criminals. In one such case, a vehicle thief was tracked down by a bunch of anonymous car enthusiasts after the victim posted his story on a forum. In the end, they identified the guy through his Facebook profile.
Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.
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Comments
19
Subscribe to commentsBrianApr 6th 2009 5:09PM
Sue those idiots. They owe him a birthday dinner.
JackieApr 12th 2009 3:40PM
I agree with you, give him an apology dinner for his birthday oh and a cake. It doesnt pay to be honest to anyone, anymore. I would have asked an address and mailed it with no return address, that way everyone would have been satisfied!!
AllieApr 6th 2009 5:17PM
Welcome to the U.S.S.A. Get used to it, you're going to see a lot of it over the next 4 years.
allie is kinda dumbApr 6th 2009 6:39PM
rtfa, UK, not USA.
bevApr 6th 2009 6:21PM
I agree, Allie
Orange LobsterApr 6th 2009 6:33PM
Apparently your political stance has affected either your reading, your comprehemsion, or both. If you had actually READ and COMPREHENDED the article, you would have known that this incident occured in ENGLAND, not here.
What is more unfortunate is the fact that you are not the first person I've seen that has taken an incident overseas and translated it (inadvertenly or otherwise) into American politics.
Orange LobsterApr 6th 2009 6:36PM
Pardon my typo: comprehension
Nemo1Apr 6th 2009 8:33PM
Where were you When your pal Bush was in office busily politicizing the Justice dept and the EPA. Torturing suspects bought from Pakistanis for a bounty, wiretapping citizens without a warrent, running secret prisons in foreign countrys so that the U.S. courts couldn't interfer. Keeping suspects without trial and isolated for years, then letting them go, and then acting suprised when these people attrack us, and so on and so on...So where were you then? and what excatly are you afraid of now that you didn't mind then?
BevApr 6th 2009 6:19PM
Honesty is sometimes not an acceptable virtue in this world.
About 15 years ago, I took my 3-year-old shopping. She always liked to wear her new shoes through the store while I picked up other items. The strings were still attached, the tags still secure. She was sitting in the cart, so that was no probIem, I got to the checkout and forgot she was wearing her new shoes. I paid and rolled the cart to my car. It was when I was taking her out of the cart that I noticed the shoes. I took her and the shoes back inside and told the customer service clerk. Her anger was apparent. She made me wait until she huffily took care of the matter. She treated me with rudeness. I paid, and walked out thinking, if it ever happens again, my girl will have new FREE shoes.
My advice to anyone who finds something expensive, like a cell phone, leave it alone.
arthur lee davisApr 7th 2009 12:54AM
Thanks for the advice, young people. Found one here in my apartment complex last year. did not know that it should have been left on the ground where i saw it .The rightful owner did come to the building where i live to pick it up and thank me. I wasn`t aware this could become a big problem for the finder until reading this comment.
JoeApr 7th 2009 12:47AM
Proves cops are stupid around the world. I wonder if one question do they ask on the Employment Application. Are your Mom and Dad, Brother and Sister to each other?
keithApr 6th 2009 9:34PM
There has to be something more. ' Theft by Finding ' ? What the h*** is that ?! To ALL the police officers out there ( yeah - I know this was in England, but this stupidity happens here too ), it is s*** like this that gets the public so angry at you. I know you all like to say that it is not your job to pick and choose what laws to enforce. BUT YOU DO EVERY DAY - you see someone make an illegal turn in their car and you don't bother to ticket them because you're at the end of your shift or you're on break or whatever - you just did pick !!! So when some act like this is really at the bottom of the priority scale, let it go, the world will not end and you'll probably get some unspoken support from the person in the future. Jeeez.....
AlvenApr 7th 2009 1:39PM
No good deed goes unpunished! Unfortunately, this seems to be more common. Telling the truth only gets you into hotwater. The day the courts changed and allowed lying in the court room without punishment and often rewarded. Became the day truth was punished. Whether over there or here the truth is being punished everyday. Lies travel much faster than the truth. Our society simply has no patience anymore for the truth nor the time to hear it.
speeddemon4520May 14th 2009 1:42AM
That is because the MEDIA pushes lies,lies, and more lies.The truth will never come out because that doesn't suit the Media's agenda.The court system has also fallen to the Politically Correct.IT is not about being honest or fair,It is about how the Press and the public at large influenced by the PRESS will take it.The press and people like Oprah and all her kind in the Media controls what people think Ever watch the View? People eat up whatever they say and rarely do they tell the truth SAD SAD SAD
DebbieApr 8th 2009 6:01PM
"Finders Keepers" from now on, or dumpster for sure. The cops sure know how to ruin HONEST people's lives, don't they?
aka: Nitfong vs 3 Duke Lacrosse Players
LGTHINKMay 4th 2009 7:05AM
F**K THE COPS!! I LOVE IT WHEN I SEE ONE OF THEM BROUGHT UP ON CHARGES THEMSELVES, SO THEY CAN SEE HOW IT FEELS TO BE PUT THROUGH THAT CRAP. THEY ARE THUGS WITH GUNS, AND THE WHOLE LEGAL SYSTEM BEHIND THEM. PUNKS!! FROM NOW ON KEEP THE PHONE TO CALL YOUR MAMA TO TELL HER WHAT A GOOD HONEST PERSON YOU ARE! LOL
CrazyColl77May 4th 2009 8:26AM
The person was finding the cell phone in good faith and brought it to the police station. That is so messed up to get him arrested. I found someones cell phone one day and they gave me a reward and met in a public place. This person was honest and brought the cell phone to the police.
Ggeeezy QMay 12th 2009 11:10PM
LGTHINK, preach the gospel brother. And they always say we need more cops to prevent crime, what a crock! Why so there can be more cops standing around a crime scene? Cops can't prevent any crimes cause they don't show up until after the crime, in fact I don't know why they even need guns. The citizen needs a gun so it doesn't happen in the first place. Rich people are the only ones who get preemptive law enforcement presence.
JosephMay 15th 2009 5:00PM
I could see something being defined as "Theft by finding" if someone found a lost item and kept it. Such as "finding" a laptop just lying there and walking off with it (while its owner went off for a minute for a coffee). Or even finding an accidentally dropped cell phone, such as the kid did, but swapping out the SIM cards and using it as their own, when it would have been an easy matter to determine who it belonged to.
I once found a lost (and drowned!) AT&T cell phone at a bus stop. It was non-functional, but I turned it into AT&T and they were able to determine by serial number (or SIM number), whos phone it was.
This kid found the cell phone, immediately determined who it belonged to, and turned it into the police. He shoud have been thanked for his diligence and honesty, not arrested. Apparently it was a slow day at the precinct and someone needed to up their quota numbers.