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Mugger Arrested After Victim Spots Him On Facebook's 'People You May Know' (bgr.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BGR: In a somewhat bizarre story which proves that truth is often stranger than fiction, a serial mugger in England was arrested after one of his victims spotted him under Facebook's 'People you may know' section.Originally reported by the BBC, 21-year old Omar Famuyide had a long history of theft, muggings and armed robberies to his name. Not too long ago, Famuyide brandished a knife and stole a car.

Flash forward a bit, and the victim of said car robbery was recently shocked to see Famuyide's face pop up as a suggested friend he might want to add on Facebook. The victim promptly called the police who quickly managed to tie him to a large number of other violent crimes. By the time the dust settled and the full extent of Famuyide's criminal rampage was revealed, Famuyide was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

His Facebook profile ultimately led to charges of robbery, attempted robbery, and possessing a firearm.

37 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Why wonder? by Alumoi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...the victim of said car robbery was recently shocked to see Famuyide's face pop up as a suggested friend he might want to add on Facebook
    Why would the victim be shocked? They shared the same car so they must be friends, right?

  2. FB Search by eric31415927 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The mugger likely searched the victim on FB after the mugging.
    FB saw one person searching out another and suggested the pairing to the victim.
    With only 50 FB friends and a hidden profile, FB gives me suggestions all of the time.
    Often, the suggestions only make sense if the suggested friend had tried searching for me on FB.

    1. Re:FB Search by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      of skimming phone contacts and uploading them to Facebook

      You don't need to suspect this. They flat out do it and are fully up front about it. The sync contact features is advertised as merging your phone contact list with Facebook, although that functionality is now part of Facebook Messenger and not Facebook itself.

  3. Re:Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Jzanu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Criminals MAY acquire and use guns, but it makes prosecution MUCH easier because by possession they have committed an irrefutable crime already.

  4. Re:Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by zyloid · · Score: 5, Informative

    The UK has strict gun control, which is just as effective as posting "Gun-Free Zone" signs.

    The number of gun murders per capita in the US in 2012 was around thirty times that of the UK. Genuinely interested in what you think this difference is down to if not a strong legislative and cultural approach to gun control.

  5. this shouldn't be used to justify tracking by sittingnut · · Score: 2

    good that obviously guilty criminal is in prison.

    but this sort of thing shouldn't be used to justify tracking, and invasions of privacy, of people who have not explicitly authorized facebook and other techs to track them.

    but i am afraid they will be so used. be prepared hear more stories like this.

    wonder if criminal and his lawyers(in this case probably cheap or free ones) fully used his legal defenses to invalidate evidence.

  6. Re:Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by PvtVoid · · Score: 2

    The UK has strict gun control, which is just as effective as posting "Gun-Free Zone" signs.

    The number of gun murders per capita in the US in 2012 was around thirty times that of the UK. Genuinely interested in what you think this difference is down to if not a strong legislative and cultural approach to gun control.

    Because the British are a bunch of sheeple, obviously. Free Men murder each other with properly virile gusto.

  7. FB is a panopticon by rsborg · · Score: 4, Informative

    The mugger likely searched the victim on FB after the mugging.

    And this is the reality. You can't do anything on Facebook (even searches) without being caught in one of their algorithms to increase their profit (in this case, by increasing interconnectedness).

    What's even more scary is that Facebook is now tracking and advertising to you when they see you outside of Facebook [1]. This combined with the fact that Facebook trackers are everywhere infested on most sites, means without some means of being ignored [2], you could be tracked even if you didn't visit FB.

    Paranoia: it's healthy now.

    [1] http://www.theverge.com/2016/5...
    [2/CH] https://chrome.google.com/webs...
    [2/FF] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    1. Re:FB is a panopticon by Solandri · · Score: 2

      What's even more scary is that Facebook is now tracking and advertising to you when they see you outside of Facebook

      They've been doing that for close to a decade. The non-technical press has just finally figured it out. It's the main reason I used extensions like noscript, cookiesafe, and ghostery, and now browse in incognito mode all the time. Every 'f' icon on a web page is a little eyeball tracking what pages you're visiting.

      I'm sorry if you're just learning this now. Facebook probably already knows your name, your address, where you work, who your family, friends, and co-workers are, what you look like (courtesy of FB members who "helpfully" tag you in their photos with your name), what websites you like to visit, what products you like to buy (or window shop for), and thus can make a pretty good guess what your hobbies are, how much money you make, and what your family life is like. Even though you've never created a Facebook account, courtesy of millions of those little 'f' eyeballs.

  8. Re:Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think what GP may be referring to is the actual underlying story here, which the BGR article linked seems to have wrong. Omar Famuyide was in fact brandishing a gun and pointed it at the victim's head, and said gun was found abandoned in the car (a white BMW) two days later.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/u...

    He also fired a shot inside of a massage parlor:

    http://www.birminghammail.co.u...

    And in case you consider those two sources to be somehow less reliable than BGR, here's a third source:

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng...

    So yeah, he did in fact commit these crimes while brandishing a gun, and there are even a few photos of said gun.

  9. In other news... by CCarrot · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...idiot mugger uses real photo of himself on Facebook, gets recognized by one of his many victims, and arrested.

    Dude, really? Did you go to the Wet Bandit school of bad-assery?

    --
    "I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
    1. Re:In other news... by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      ...idiot mugger uses real photo of himself on Facebook, gets recognized by one of his many victims, and arrested.

      Dude, really? Did you go to the Wet Bandit school of bad-assery?

      I think you'll find that every criminal uses a real photo of themselves on Facebook. That's the wonderful thing about the criminal mind, they don't hide their face from public life based on the thought that their face was not publicised during their crime.

  10. The liberal mindset by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dear Sir,

    You have done a superb job painstakingly pointing out the flaws of that gun-hating liberal

    If you think you can change their mind, you might as well take a well deserved rest

    Fire can use to burn down a house, but the same fire can also be used for cooking

    The liberals can't understand that guns, like fire, have more than one use. For them 'gun' == 'kill', and that's it. They refuse to accept anything else

    Forget it, Sir. Them liberals' mind is set, in concrete

    1. Re:The liberal mindset by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Guns have one purpose: To maim or kill another living being, either a human or an animal. There is absolutely no other use for a gun. Using a gun to intimidate someone, is to threaten them with the possibility of being maimed or killed.

      Even target shooting (which I sometimes participate in myself) is nothing more than training for using a gun to maim or kill.

      That's it. Firearms have literally no uses that are non-destructive.

      --
      Eat the rich.
  11. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    US homicide rates are about 3 times higher. Lets be clear here, the rest of the world doesnt envy the US; when it comes to gun law we genuinely believe that you are totally and irredeemably batshit insane, and can only watch in horror.

  12. Re:Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously though. Do you think the guy that is willing to stick that knife into you gives a shit about the law saying you can't carry a knife? That's the silliness of such laws. You make it impossible for law abiding people to have any means of defense and render them helpless while doing nothing to impede the lawless. If I'm willing to murder and or rob you then why do I care about a weapons charge?

  13. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    Knives don't run out of ammo. Also, they don't like it up 'em, you know.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  14. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because it allows police to have good reason to arrest someone when they stop and search them and find the knife. Why is this so difficult for you to grasp? Stop trying to peddle your idiotic American gun culture on the rest of the planet. It is clearly the reason why you have so many shootings. I enjoy my city and I don't want it to become a dangerous shithole like the US is.

  15. Re:Violent felon... by ledow · · Score: 2

    Fuck off, you racist twat.

    From a Brit with a traditional British name.

  16. Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess we just define freedom differently. To you, freedom is walking down the street feeling safe because you're allowed to carry a firearm. For me, freedom is walking down the street feeling safe without needing to carry a firearm.

    1. Re:Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Feel" however you want, the rest of us don't care. But when you start trying to take a means of defense away from others, you have crossed the line. You are taking away others' freedom so that you can "feel" safer. I believe Franklin had a quote regarding liberty and safety.

    2. Re:Freedom by goose-incarnated · · Score: 2

      I guess we just define freedom differently. To you, freedom is walking down the street feeling safe because you're allowed to carry a firearm. For me, freedom is walking down the street feeling safe without needing to carry a firearm.

      As with most things in life, many people would rather have something and not need it than need something and not have it.

      Besides, your "freedom" to walk down the street without needing a firearm comes from the fact that men with guns back up your "freedom".

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  17. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, it might be dangerous, and it might be a shithole, but... uh...

    U! S! A!
    U! S! A!

  18. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 2, Informative

    What use is your do when the criminal is pointing a gun at your head? What happens if you miss? What happens if you drop your gun because you're terrified.

    What if nothing... you didn't bother to read the news story I linked to...

    If guns are magic wands that keep you safe, why doesn't the US have the lowest crime rate in the developed world? I'm not against gun ownership but I'm tired of the bullshit.

    Then be tired of being ignorant to the facts...

    The US does have one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world, outside of a few select areas. Stay out of Compton, the South Side, and a few other places and the US is amazingly crime free...

    We have a gang problem and a black problem, but no one wants to talk about it because that is "racist". No it isn't, it is the truth...

  19. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by cyber-vandal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And we have much lower crime rates again if we pretend all the high crime areas in our countries don't exist. Fuck me I'm sick of that stupid argument.

  20. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 2, Informative

    Again, you miss the point...

    Having guns or not having guns has nothing to do with the crime rates...

    Removing all the guns wouldn't change them. It is an economic problem and a cultural problem.

    But those are harder to fix than just saying "evil guns".

  21. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by cyber-vandal · · Score: 3, Informative

    You missed me saying that I'm not in favour of gun control but this idea that guns are magic wands that keep crime at bay is bollocks otherwise your country would have the lowest crime rate in the developed world.

  22. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by cyber-vandal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    By that logic the gang areas should be super safe because they're full of guns. Home invasions are virtually unknown in the area I live in but there are few guns, legal or otherwise. The causes of crime tend to be poverty, family breakdown, poor education and sociopaths. There is no shortage of criminals in Eastern Europe where there are virtually no black people.

  23. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by bestweasel · · Score: 2

    No. The US murder rate is 3.8 times that of the UK but the murder rate with guns is 30 times.

  24. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why are police stopping and searching people? Have they done something wrong? Given that police don't have x-ray vision or mind-reading powers, how many people do you think police would have to stop and search before finding someone in possession of something illegal? How many daily searches would you tolerate?

  25. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by baker_tony · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "the rest of the world doesnt envy the US; when it comes to gun law we genuinely believe that you are totally and irredeemably batshit insane, and can only watch in horror."
    That's an understatement.
    Other countries after massacres think "hmm, perhaps we should do something to fix this".
    And fix it.
    American's seem to think that massacres means more guns should be introduced and start buying more while screaming "Obama about to tell the army to attack Texas and take all my guns!!!". That's right, ask all the soldiers that come from Texas to attack their own families. Yet a large proportions of American's genuinely believe that will happen, just like they believe the world's only a few thousand years old.
    And now they've got Trump one step away from punching the big red nuke button.
    "Batshit insane" just scratches the surface of how messed up America is.

  26. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't understand why the tons of accidental shooting deaths and injuries, in addition to all of the intended shootings that happen just because one or both parties are armed and the situation escalates, are totally acceptable to those that cite 'defense'.

    I'd think the freedom not to die from some irrational fucktard's anger, or from some stray bullet going though your apartment wall due to some dude next door playing with his gun, might be a little more important than this almost-entirely-hypothetical 'freedom' to 'defend' yourself.

  27. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by mattwarden · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Plenty of US cities have laws like you suggest. They are the cities with the worst gun crime.

    Strangely, you made the guy's point for him. Your country's laws are such that the only people with weapons are criminals, so much so that the sight of a weapon identifies someone as a criminal. This is common knowledge for the non-criminals in your country. It's probably also common knowledge for the criminals. You all do have a point though; if the criminals know that nobody has any means to defend themselves beyond their fists, then there is less need to carry a firearm. Criminals can overpower victims with far less.

    I don't quite understand the suggestion that anyone was trying to tell your country how it should run. I think you should have whatever laws you'd like in your country. Uniform laws breed ignorance, much like the content of your comment. With diverse laws, we have actual data from different jurisdictions. It's never pure, because there are always confounding variables, but it's enough to make a pretty strong argument for leaving 2nd amendment rights in tact for the people that want to exercise them.

  28. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The UK had a similar ratio lower murder rate before they enacted gun laws. I'm an Aussie and our murder rate has declined at about the same rate it was declining before our gun laws.

    When I left school in QLD you could buy military style semiautomatics over the counter, no license, no waiting period. We didn't carry them about like Americans seem to. A few mass shootings and they got banned. But even with the mass shootings our overall murder rate was declining and was far less than the US.

    I suspect that bringing in gun laws like the UK and Australia have to the US is a recipe for disaster. It would be more likely to spark a civil war than decrease deaths.

    There's a reason for that risk of civil war and that is the second amendment. In Australia our gun laws were brought in legally. John Howard demanded the states implement uniform gun laws or he would have a referendum to change the constitution to give the federal government the power to do it. If our laws had violated our constitution I might have stocked up on guns like many Americans do.

    If I was American I would be totally against federal gun laws without constitutional change.

  29. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2
    The Gun culture is not idiotic, but very rationally racist. In USA any black/brown/yellow person brandishing anything that remotely resembles a gun, or even something that could have appeared to be a gun with enough benefit of doubt is enough to shoot and kill that person. But white people openly carrying guns, even long guns, even with their finger on the trigger, who picks an argument with police officer will be treated gingerly. The police will make sure that the gun wielders' constitutional second amendment rights are not even remotely infringed upon.

    If you guys think anyone other than white people can freely brandish guns, you are sadly mistaken.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  30. Re: Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 2

    You can't compare the US and Europe like for like. The US is pretty culturally homogeneous (because you killed off most of the native population and replaced it with your own), whereas Europe has enormous cultural differences, even from one country to the next.

    Eastern Europe is especially under tension, because of the constant and arbitrary moving of borders that has happened over the last century or two.

    The US has had nothing like that, at least not anywhere near that scale of fuckery.

    --
    Eat the rich.
  31. Re:Armed robberies can't happen in Europe! by Coren22 · · Score: 2

    They are for the numerous women who carry them in their purses as a rape defence.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?