If you’re going to steal, probably best not to post about it online as you’re in the act.
But that’s exactly how police in Ocean City, Maryland, said they nabbed a 24-year-old man who allegedly stole a Jeep Wrangler, and posted videos of the theft as he was doing it on Snapchat.
The incident was reported just before 11 a.m. Saturday, when police responded to the parking lot of a popular hangout at the beach called Seacrets Bar & Grille along the main strip of Coastal Highway.
At first, officers had no suspects in the case of the stolen 1994 Jeep Wrangler, which was taken in the early hours of the morning. It was found several hours later, parked at a condo.
But later that evening, they got an anonymous tip to check social media.
They did, and figured out that the alleged thief – later identified as Brian Engelmann of Mastic Beach, New York – posted a “series of videos to the popular social media platform ‘Snapchat’ showing him stealing the Jeep Wrangler earlier that morning.”
Police said the videos “depict Engelmann stealing the Jeep and driving erratically” in the area.
Lindsay Richard, a spokeswoman for the Ocean City Police Department, said the videos “show him thinking about it, taking it, and then driving erratically.”
One of them, she said, shows him parking the Jeep where it was later found.
“It is not something we see often,” Richard said. “In the past couple of years, we have seen quite a few people who post their crimes on social media.” Typically, she said, they’ll post pictures of “something they’ve stolen,” like a road sign.
“This is a unique one where someone posted the entire series of their crime,” she said.
She said the videos also showed Engelmann driving with no hands and driving while using a cellphone – both of which earned him additional traffic violation charges.
Richard said it is believed that Engelmann stole the vehicle after finding the keys, which had been left in the Jeep.
Police said they were also able to determine that Engelmann went back to the Seacrets bar that night. And that’s where he was later found and arrested.
Engelmann faces charges of vehicle theft and other traffic violations. He is being held in a local jail on $20,000 bond.
