Social media sites, Glenn Theobald and the Straw Buyer.

We have to be honest here folks, we here at the Straw Buyer are not computer savvy, not one bit.  We've had several people suggest that we get involved in all the difference social media sites (myspace, facebook, twitter, etc...), to be honest with you all that stuff is way above our pay grade.  That's not to say that we haven't been looking through some of those sites to glean information on the people that we've been writing about, it's just not our cup of tea.


What's startling though about these social media sites (IE facebook) is just how much of their private lives people make available for the public to see, pictures of themselves inebriated, doing things that perhaps you'd like to forget or even worse, pictures of themselves with people that they may not want anyone to see, etc.  These social media sites make a great investigatory tool for law enforcement.  While the Barrera mortgage fraud case was in its earliest stages, through facebook we were able to link almost all the players involved in the fraud including several other people the PD didn't even know about.  Even worse though are all those horror stories that emerge from these social media sites, people getting raped, kids getting molested, really who needs it?  Does anyone remember this guy?  

Is meeting real people in person too much trouble?


Regardless though, there is one aspect of Facebook in particular that can lead to major embarrassment for prominent members of the community, IE judges, politicians, etc.  What happens when you're say a judge or a member of the local police forces command staff with a Facebook page and it turns out one of the people on your "friends" list is accused of some sort of embarrassing act or even worse a heinous crime?  Not good huh?  You all remember Glenn Theobald right?  He was the former Chief counsel of the Miami Dade County Police department and the former chairman of the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force.  Let's take a look at Mr. Theobalds friends from his Facebook page...
 

Uh, oh!  Let's take a closer look at that person outlined in red...

Wait a minute, doesn't that face look familiar?  Could this Maria Lopez be the Maria Teresa Lopez who was charged and arrested for mortgage fraud, grand theft, identity theft and money laundering that we discussed a few weeks ago?  Damn!  That doesn't look good now does it!  


Mr. Theobald, you may want reconsider that Facebook friend!!!