There are crimes for money, for power, and out of desperation. Donald Pugh’s was for photographic vanity. This man from Lima, Ohio, had been on the run for a while for violating his probation when he made a decision no fugitive handbook contemplates: contacting the very police who were looking for him.
His complaint was legitimate, at least in his own mind. The official mugshot they were using to identify him made him look, according to what he himself told a local radio station, like a character from Thundercats. So he did what any reasonable person would do in that situation: he sent the Lima Police Department a more flattering selfie for them to use instead.
The police accepted the gesture with impeccable irony: they posted the new image on Facebook along with an official thank-you and the kind suggestion that he stop by to talk about his charges. The post surpassed 1.600 shares and sparked a wave of memes. Far from hiding, Pugh excitedly declared that his photo “had gone viral”. Shortly afterward, people who recognized him thanks to that same selfie helped the authorities. The police arrested him. Vanity accomplished in days what the investigation had not managed on its own.
