Facebook posts lead to bank robbery arrests

April 22, 2011

Facebook status posts led to four arrests for bank robbery. Image: Flickr / birgerking / CC BY

Sharing just about everything on Facebook nowadays seems like second nature to many. For one group of young bank robbers, sharing their exploits on Facebook landed them in jail. Law enforcement checked Facebook after an anonymous tip alerted them to the appearance of the postings.

Houston bank robbery

On March 24, the International Bank of Commerce in Houston was robbed. Allegedly, two tellers who worked at the bank recruited two more individuals to pull of a bank robbery. Close to closing time on March 23, two masked men came into the bank and demanded money. Two tellers went into the vault, handed over $62,201, and were then left in the vault as the robbers left. The tellers called 911 a few minutes after the robbery. Estefany Danelia Martinz and Anna Margarita Rivera were reportedly the tellers who organized the heist, and Ricky Gonzalez and Arturo Solano were the alleged robbers.

Facebook posts highlight robberies

Two days before the robbery, Martinez reportedly wrote on her Facebook page “Get $$$(:”. The day after the robbery, Gonzalez wrote “Wipe my teeth with hundereds” [sic] on his Facebook page. Gonzales reportedly wrote “U have to past the line sometimes!! To get dis money” at about the same time Martinez wrote “I’m rich.” Attorneys for the arrested foursome are saying that these Facebook posts were not about the robbery. Instead, the attorneys say “it was just young kids talking” about a stressful situation.

The use of social networking as evidence

FBI and law enforcement officials were not initially searching Facebook for information about the bank robbery. An anonymous tip led the investigators to the Facebook pages. The growing popularity of Facebook has led to a comparative rise in the number of civil and legal court cases that cite Facebook as evidence. Social networks can easily be used as evidence, and in many cases, suspects do not even have their networks privacy-protected to the point that a warrant would be required.

Source

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/04/22/texas.heist.facebook/index.html?hpt=T2

Post By bryanh (1,397 Posts)

Connect

Do you have a fantastic idea related to this article, but just don't have the money you need to start your own company or side-business? Get the loans you need from https://personalmoneynetwork.com to help get your new company underway, from the small loan professionals at PersonalMoneyNetwork.

PG&E to pay $70 million for pipeline tragedy

Pacific Gas and Electric was responsible for a pipeline explosion that killed eight in 2010. Image: juggernautco/Flickr/CC BY

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a northern California utility, has agreed to pay $70 million to the California town of San Bruno for a pipeline explosion that killed eight people in 2010. Company says it’s remorseful The San Francisco-based power company’s president, Chris Johns, released a statement Monday, saying PG&E is sorry and eager to [...]

Judge stabbed and deputy shot in Washington courthouse

Grays Harbor County Courthouse. Image: MiK/Flickr/CC BY-SA

Following a standoff in a Washington state county courtroom Friday, a man reportedly escaped after shooting a sheriff’s deputy in the shoulder and stabbing a judge in the neck. The man is still at large. Treachery among the tree farms The incident occurred Friday afternoon in the western Washington town of Montesano, which bills itself [...]

Microraptor was one flashy little dinosaur

This Microraptor fossil is preserved at China's Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature. Image: Hello, I am Bruce/Flickr/CC BY-SA

A team of Chinese and American scientists have found that Microraptor, a small four winged dinosaur that went extinct about 130 million years ago, was likely black and almost certainly had glossy, iridescent feathers. Until now, the coloring of extinct creatures was a matter of pure speculation. That may no longer be the case. The [...]

Autocorrected message leads to school lockdown

The Gainesville, Ga. Homage to the Sun presides over anotehr day as a piotential tragedy turns out to be a mistake. Image" Olaf/Flickr/CC BY-SA

Adjacent schools in Georgia were locked down for two hours Wednesday after a text message reportedly warned of a “gunman” on campus. Later, it was learned that the message was the result of a smartphone autocorrect function, attempting to “fix” the misspelled slang word “gunna.” A series of mixups A series of mixups led to [...]

Recent Posts by

Coca-Cola has begun to use a different kind of caramel color to avoid a cancer label. (Photo Credit: Public Domain/Cane cane/Wikipedia)