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This article is more than 1 year old

Blockhead fugitive Snapchats himself into police custody

Idiot suspect brags about hiding in cupboard as police search his home

The Somerset County Sheriff's Office in Maine cuffed burglary suspect Christopher Wallace this Sunday, following an extraordinary burst of Snapchat buffoonery from the 24-year-old.

Several weeks ago the police department made it known that they were seeking Wallace in connection with a burglary. They had been unable to locate him after recovering a stolen propane stove at his home.

In what police-dodging hackers would describe as an end-user vulnerability, the fugitive took to Snapchat to reveal he had returned to his home on Sunday night.

The sheriff's office was duly tipped off and two local police officers, alongside two others from the nearby Fairfield PD, made their way to the residence. A search of the premises, however, failed to turn up Wallace.

While the officers were winding down their search, Wallace took to Snapchat again to say that police were searching for him in the house and bragged that they hadn't found him as he had hidden in a cabinet.

Again, the sheriff's office received phone calls. They took to Facebook to explain what happened next:

"A search of the kitchen cabinets turned up some food, some pots and pans, and also a pair of feet. The pair of feet just so happened to be attached to a person, and that person was Christopher Wallace. He was removed from the cabinet, and placed under arrest."

In a 2014 report, the Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded Snapchat a single star (out of a possible six) for its lax protection of user data from government requests. El Reg reckons that the EFF didn't take end-users' stupidity into account. ®

 

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