It never fails to amaze this Slacker how some people don’t grasp the concept that a social network is, well, social.
An Idaho man has become the latest to idiotically reveal, via Facebook, his secrets. Secrets that were keeping him out of jail.
Nick Grove, 28, has been taunting authorities ever since he busted out of Idaho’s Payette County Jail in August 2014. He had been facing burglary and firearm charges, but managed to scale the facility’s razor-wire protected fence to scamper to freedom. He crossed the border and has been on the lam in Mexico ever since—and has not been shy about talking about it.
The fugitive began a “new life” in the sandy resort town of Tulum, 80 miles south of Cancun, on the Mayan Riviera. It’s a place that’s famous for its Mayan ruins and crystalline waters, very close to the Belize border.
In his own words, he had a “new ID, new face, new job.” Using the alias “Nico Kai” and listing his residence as Cancun, a suntanned Grove has been posting vacation shots from the pool, con cerveza, for more than a year. He boasted that the authorities would never touch him…that they were “chasing a ghost.”
Well…a ghost with a social media presence. Presumably landmarks in the background (or, perhaps, tips from his “friends” on Facebook) led the U.S. Marshalls to track the escapee to his Tulum location.
“This individual has been on the run for a long time,” Payette County Sheriff Chad Huff said. “He caused us some grief, so we’re glad to see he’s off the streets and ultimately he’ll get his day in court.”
He was, they said, “less than cooperative” during his arrest. But Grove is back in the United States awaiting extradition to Payette County—and has claimed a well-deserved spot in the Social Media Idiot Hall of Fame.