Mentioned by The Times Leader in Pennslvania, 35-year-old Anthony James Lescowitch was arrested on Monday after sharing his own mug shot on his personal Facebook account along with a taunt directed at the Freeland Police Department. Wanted for aggravated assault as well as a number of other charges, the Freeland Police Department originally posted a picture of Lescowitch on the department’s official Facebook page during Monday night. Along with the photo, police representatives added a caption requesting information from the public about the whereabouts of Lescowitch.
After spotting the photo on the department’s page, Lescowitch immediately shared the photo on his personal Facebook wall and added a taunt as the caption. It’s likely that Lescowitch tagged the police department in the photo since department representatives immediately noticed the share. At this point, an unnamed police officer created a fake Facebook profile in order to pose as an attractive woman and create a trap for Lescowitch.
After approximately 30 minutes of chatting on Facebook, the undercover officer was able to determine the approximate location of Lescowitch and proposed a meeting at a nearby spot. The officer got a bit of resistance from Lescowitch when trying to convince him to meet for a drink, but was able to convince the wanted man by saying “The least you can do is come out and have a cigarette with me.”
Lescowitch eventually agreed, drove to the meeting spot and was quickly arrested by the undercover officer. All in all, the entire ordeal took less than an hour after Lescowitch shared his own mug shot on Facebook. Of course, the Freeland Police Department followed up with a gleeful post about Lescowitch’s arrest and mentioned how quickly social media led them to the suspect. Lescowitch is currently being held at Luzerne County Correctional Facility on $25,000 bail and his hearing is scheduled for next week.
