Facebook has been known to reconnect family members, old friends and random acquaintances. But Sam Drummond of Delray Beach, Fla., used the social media tool to find the thugs who lured him into an armed robbery, the Sun Sentinel reports.
On Sept. 8, a man Drummond knew as Jean Jacques called him at his newly-opened cellphone shop asking if he could sell him an iPhone. The man had sold Drummond an iPhone several weeks earlier and he seemed nice, so the request seemed legit. Drummond’s shop, Palm-Tech, has been struggling since it opened six months ago and he was looking for any business he could get at that point.
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It turned out to be a big mistake.
Jean Jacques asked the cellphone shop owner for a lift because he said he didn’t have a car. On the day of the deal, Drummond drove to the address the man gave him: Palm Beach Plantation Mobile Home Park, 6860 Lantana Rd. He had to head in that direction to eat and deposit $2,000 at a bank in the area, so the trip didn’t take him out of his way.
The Sentinel has more on this story:
Drummond rolled up around 3:30 p.m. and parked his car in front of the park management office. Jean Jacques walked up and got in the car.
“Wait a few minutes,” Jean Jacques said. “I need to go get the phone.”
Drummond then looked in the rear-view mirror and sensed something was wrong.
“I got really suspicious when I saw a guy peeking from behind the bushes,” Drummond said.
Minutes later, Jean Jacques returned and got back in the car.
Drummond then heard his back door open, and he felt the barrel of a pistol dig into the back of his head. It was the man from the bushes, and he wasn’t playing around.
“I’ll blow you away,” the man said.
“This is a robbery,” Jean Jacques said. “You’re going to give us all your s—.”
Drummond’s said he thought about how terrible it would be to die right there. He forked over his cell phone and the wallet holding the $2,000.
After filing a report with the police, Drummond went to Facebook did his own investigation. He searched Jean Jacques but found only dead ones. Then he typed in the number the man had given him and the profile name “Crime Pays Zoe Dollaz” from Lake Worth, Fla., appeared.
The profile photo looked just like the man who lured him into the trailer park. Drummond then searched “Lake Worth” and “Jean Jacques” and found a mug shot of 19-year-old Billy Jean Jacques from a previous arrest. Again, the photos matched.
He eventually found the other suspect’s information–Jonathan Coleman, 20, of Lake Worth, Fla.,–via Twitter. He, too, had prior arrests. “I had both guys at that point,” Drummond said.
The cellphone shop owner identified the men in a photo-line up after detectives called him to the station and they were cuffed the suspects the next day. They are being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on robbery charges without bond.
I think these guys stand to be candidates for “World’s Dumbest Criminals.”
