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I taunted the law on Facebook… and the law won

Thu, 1st Aug 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

A 'catch me if you can' boast on a police Facebook page has led to the arrest of one stupid shoplifter.

Wanted for questioning following a shoplifting incident at a nearby Walmart store in Richmond, Kentucky, rather dim Christina Bratcher boasted of her crimes on the social networking site.

After evading capture at the time, Bratcher, who bizarrely counts Richmond police department as 'friends' on Facebook, taunted cops with the following wall post:

"Catch me if you can and I got mad pants."

Hmm. Not sure exactly what 'mad pants' means, but thankfully we are not the only ones, with Richmond Assistant Police Chief Bob Mott querying:

"When she's talking about mad pants, I don't know what she means."

Join the club Bob.

Adding further hilarity to the incident, police had previously posted a picture of Bratcher onto the site, accompanied with details about the theft of US$117 of goods from the retail store.

But since the boast, Batcher has been arrested. Funny that.

She now faces a 2nd degree robbery charge on top of two misdemeanour charges for trafficking in a simulated substance.

While such an outburst may appear alien to us law-abiding folk, Mott claims this isn't the first time Facebook has helped the force catch criminals, and it won't be the last.

"Generally they're private messages coming back," he says.

"They don't generally post them on the main page to where everybody on the planet can see it.

"But this one was a little different to where she put it out there where everyone could see it.

Bratcher isn't the only criminal dumb enough to reveal her exploits on the social networking site however, Digital Trends recalls a time when a UK teenager was caught, and then mocked by Manchester coppers earlier this year.

"During May 2013, 19-year-old Sam Greenwood posted that phrase on the GMP Rochdale North Facebook page underneath his own mug shot according to the Manchester Evening News," the site reports.

"Twelve hours later, law enforcement officers arrested Greenwood and posted "Caught you. Do not pass Go, do not collect £200, go straight to jail," as a followup comment to his original taunt."

Quite possibly the greatest police comeback ever recorded. Keep up the good work Facebook, you are doing a sterling job of keeping our streets safe, from idiots that is.

Do you know any funny Facebook police stories? If you tell us in the comments below

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