Facebook Fugitive Caught After 4 Months
Craig "Lazie" Lynch, aka the Facebook Fugitive, nabbed after 4 months at large.
LONDON, Jan. 13, 2010 — -- Metropolitan police arrested Craig "Lazie" Lynch, also known as the Facebook Fugitivebecause he used the Website to taunt police searching for him over the last four months.
He was captured Tuesday night and charged with escaping from custody.
Lynch has been on the lam since escaping from Hollesley Bay Prison in Suffolk on Sept. 23 last year. He had been serving the last of a seven-year sentence for armed burglary.
The facility is an "open" prison that focuses on preparing inmates for their return to real life. Authorities say there was nothing spectacular about his escape. He simply walked out.
One of the first things he did was to sign up for Facebook. He used the site to regularly taunt police with details of his life outside.
He boasted about his scrumptious steak dinners and posed shirtless, making a crude gesture directed towards them. When he made it to Christmas without being caught, he posted, "Yes! Yes! I f****** made it to Xmas. I beat their f****** system and I love it."
He even called into a television station to grant an interview about his escapades. Initially, he claimed that he logged onto Facebook to get in touch with old friends, but soon he found he was teasing the authorities and getting quite a reaction.
Nearly 40,000 people signed up to his fan site. A YouTube song was posted in his honor.
"I'm genuinely surprised and shocked," he told Channel 5 in Great Britain. "At the end of the day I've got convicted of second degree burglary, an offense which I'm not, I'm not exactly proud of and I'm surprised that people actually want to follow a burglar, you know?"
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