social media | Badge415

Do your children have Facebook “friends” who are about to become suspects?

Nowadays, every cop on the street has been to a call or taken a report involving social media. Ask any officer who is assigned to a school detail or sexual assault detective and they’ll have plenty of stories that will make your jaw hit the floor that involve some type of social media.

About two years ago, I was dispatched to an assault and battery call in one of our run down neighborhoods in the northern part of the city. When I arrived, I spoke to a sixteen year old girl, who had been drinking.

“What happened,” I asked.
“This guy punched me and left me here.”
“Who is he?”
“I met him on Facebook.”

REALLY?

One day she got a friend request from someone she had never met before. Rather than ignore it like I would, she clicked on the accept button.

She then started messaging this male who she had never met before. After a while she agreed to go to a party with him.

A day later he picked her up and took her to the party, which was at some unknown location. There were two other females in the car with them. Once at the party she started drinking. Of course, her parents had no idea where she was.

When they finally left the party he was supposed to drive her home. As they were driving the girl noticed they were going the wrong way. She told the suspect this, but he pulled to the curb and told her to get out.

She refused and told the suspect to take her home. She didn’t want to get stranded in this strange neighborhood at night. He again told her to get out. She pretested and refused to exit the vehicle.

Apparently he had enough. He got out of the car and went to the passenger side where she was sitting. He opened the door and dragged her out of the car. He then punched her in the face as he kept telling her to get out.

When he was done hitting her he got back into the car and drove away, leaving her on the side of the road at midnight.

I asked the victim if she knew his phone number or where he lived. She had no information on him except for what was posted on Facebook. No license plate number either.

I asked to see his Facebook page to try and get some information about him, but she didn’t have a phone. She had an iPod instead, which was at home.

I drove her home and explained to her mother what had happened. The mother was a Spanish speaker and I had to use a translator to assist me. She seemed concerned, but she had no idea who her daughter went with tonight.

I stood in the living room while the victim went to her bedroom to get her iPod. She returned from the bedroom and handed it to me. The suspect’s profile page was showing. I saw his picture and his name. Below the name were the words, “Add Friend.”

I showed her the iPod and said, “He unfriended you already.” That didn’t take long for her to be kicked to the Facebook curb of “unfriended” status.

She took a look at the iPod and was shocked to see they were no longer Facebook friends anymore. Not that they were ever really friends in the first place.

I left the apartment shaking my head at the ignorance of this victim and her mother. Neither one of them really saw the problem here. They just didn’t get it. They didn’t understand how bad things could’ve ended up tonight.

Watch out for your kids!

Stayed tuned for my next Facebook story…….

Do you have any idea what’s on your teen’s phone?

Sometimes I just shake my head at work. I still get amazed by what people do to get themselves into bad situations.

The other night I went to a head-on collision involving a wrong way driver. There were seven occupants between the two vehicles and I was surprised only one person went to the hospital.

There were five people in the wrong way car. Three of the occupants were males who were twenty-three, twenty and eighteen years old. The two females in the car were fifteen and seventeen years old. The fifteen year old ended up being transported to the hospital.

The driver was arrested for various charges and the two other males got to leave. The only person left was the seventeen year old girl.

During the investigation I asked her to point out who the driver was. She said, “I’m ninety nine percent sure it was him,” as she pointed to one of the males.

I asked, “How come you’re only ninety-nine percent sure?”
“I just met them an hour ago.”
“What do mean you just met them an hour ago?”
“They just picked us up.”
“Where were you going?
“To a party.”

The males were adults and from Los Angeles County. I asked, “How did you meet them?”

“I met them on an app,” she said.
That was when my jaw dropped and hit the floor.
“What’s the app called?
“Meet Me.”
“You let complete strangers pick you up at your house?”
“No. It was in front of an apartment. We gave them a different address, but it wasn’t where we lived.”
“Don’t you think that’s dangerous?” I asked.
“It’s never been dangerous before.”
I pointed to the two vehicles and said, “Until tonight.”
She shrugged and said, “Yeah.”

She went on to tell me there was another friend, who was sixteen years old, that was also supposed to go. When the males arrived, there was only room for two passengers, so the sixteen year old went home.

It makes you wonder how many other teenagers are meeting adults on apps like this and going places with them. Makes you also wonder how many are being abused.

This is just something to think about if you’re a parent of a teen. You might want to check their phone to see what they’re doing and who they’re doing it with.

There’s a chance you have no idea. That should be a scary thought for any parent.