Henry County investigators looking for a man suspected of breaking into a car got some unexpected help when the alleged thief inadvertently posted a photo of himself on his victim's Facebook page.
The victim's vehicle was broken into on Sept. 26 at East Lake Academy daycare in McDonough and her purse was taken, according to Henry police Major Jason Bolton.
"The suspect apparently took a picture of himself on the victim's phone, and due to her settings, it automatically uploaded to her Facebook page," Bolton said.
Bolton said that the victim had pulled up at the daycare around 5:30 p.m. to pick up her child, and parked next to a black Toyota RAV 4 with tinted windows, but thought that the driver of the SUV was a female because of the long braids.
He said the victim did not lock her car when she went inside to get her child. “It wasn’t until she got home that she realized, ‘oh, no, someone took my purse,’” Bolton said.
He said that at some point in the next 12 hours or so, the victim pulled up her Facebook page “and she notices this picture that has been automatically uploaded, and she thinks, when she sees it, ‘oh, this is the person that I saw right next to me, but it’s a guy, not a girl.’”
“Obviously, this individual had no idea that her phone had these settings on it that caused it to automatically upload to Facebook,” Bolton told the AJC.
“I’m thinking he’s going to be pretty surprised,” Bolton said. He asked that anyone recognizing the suspect call investigators at 770-288-8266.
“We don’t normally get pictures with this sort of clarity, and it’s just real exciting to have a picture that the quality is this good that we can put out there,” Bolton said. “We feel confident that he’s definitely going to be recognizable.”
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