What Social Media Giveth, Social Media Taketh Away

(upbeat music) - Hey, Antara Saravan, and you're listening to World Dommest Criminals. If you're keen to hear about the most ridiculous, bizarre and downright stupid criminals and crime stories in the world ever, you've come to the right place. In today's episode you'll be hearing about a Washington police officer who posted a video on TikTok bragging about being above the law and saying that cops make up false allegations against motorists who don't get out of their way. And a baby-faced burglar and aspiring rapper from England who was jailed after boasting about his crimes in raps that he posted online. Alrighty, let's get cracking. Officer Brianna Strauss of Federal Way in Washington posted a tone-deaf TikTok on July 1st, 2022. In it she bragged about being able to speed and said that people who didn't get the fuck out of the cops' way while driving would be hit with bogus charges. Brianna was sworn in as an officer on August 9th, 2021. Her resume, which is available on LinkedIn, states that she worked mostly as a bartender and a nanny before joining the force. It also says that she's an excellent leader with excellent people skills who has a passion for helping others in any way possible. But the TikTok she posted certainly contradicts those claims. And this was just last year, which makes me wonder if she received any training on how it's a bad look for cops to boast about committing crimes on social media. Or is there no training available in that as it's just so bloody obvious to everybody? In the video she's sitting in a car in full police uniform, glammed up and sporting some serious tactical facial bronzer. She also has really long fake eyelashes. They look like spiders legs. I don't know how she can even drive let alone fight crime in those things. Maybe they're actual spiders that she pulls off her eyes and throes at criminals. They're captioned on the video states, "I'm not the only one thinking it." That title implies that she has the ability to read the room. But if she did, she wouldn't have posted this daft little tirade. Fast talker Brianna starts off by saying that the video is a public service announcement for everyone. Then she tells her followers that if they see a cop on the freeway driving behind them, they need to get the fuck out of the way. She says that officers can simply find a reason to pull drivers over if they don't get the fuck out of their way, which raise concerns about her previous traffic stops. Did the people she arrested or issued citations to actually commit a crime? Or did they just not get out of this entitled spider-lashed fast talker's way quickly enough to sustain her ego trip? Let's take a listen. Oh, by the way, that clacking noise that you hear throughout the video is her dangly bracelet hitting the dashboard as she flails her hand around in a self-aggrandizing manner. PSA, to everyone out there. I'm speaking for myself, but I'm probably speaking for a large majority of other officers out there. If we're driving on the freeway in our police car, get the fuck out of the way. Get the fuck out of the way. If you merge and we follow behind you and we merge too, you're probably in trouble. That's why if I'm not out, get the fuck out of the way. I can go nine miles an hour. You can't. You can't do that. So get the fuck out of the way. If that's officer stay behind you long enough, we can find a reason to pull you over. So you run as long as you get the fuck out of the way. Super simple. That's all. You're welcome. Well, someone thinks they're very important, don't they? I'm sure you've probably heard this from her voice, but I feel the need to tell you that she has a major case of smug face. Epic, pouty smug face. Even Gwyneth Paltrow is like, "Wow, how do I step my smug face game up to this level?" Brianna seems like someone who would have been at total nightmare in high school. She'd be one of those self-appointed hot girls who bullied you about your looks and your clothes, but she's also sporty and mean, so you would have had to worry about her literally beating your ass as well. She's the worst of both worlds. I can imagine her giving a speech to the studious kids in the high school cafeteria like she did in the TikTok, but it would be more like, "If we're walking down the hallway in our cheerleader uniforms, get the fuck out of the way, get the fuck out of the way." The video led to much debate about Brianna's entitled attitude not being in line with her career choice. One Twitter user summed up a lot of people's sentiments when they tweeted, "The arrogance is disgusting." Brianna quickly deleted her TikTok account, but the genie was out of the bottle. The video had already gone viral, which led to the police department, investigating Brianna. Commander Kurt Schwano, federal way police, told the federal way mirror that the department had not received any complaints against Brianna regarding arrests, citations, or traffic stops. On July 8th, he provided the following statement. The federal way police department stresses professionalism in every aspect of our mission and does not tolerate actions by any employee, on or off duty, that would tarnish the reputation of the agency. We value the trust that our community has in the federal way police department, and we strive each day to earn and maintain the public's trust. We have viewed the social media video posted by our officer and can assure you that it does not represent the core values and practices of our police department. The federal way police have a reputation of being respectful, courteous, and professional, and are focused on serving the community at the highest level. This matter is currently being investigated administratively for policy violations and appropriate personal actions will be taken. Working for FWPD in any capacity is an honour and privilege and we are held by the public, our industry, and ourselves to the highest standards of behaviour and trust. Then they launched such a thorough investigation into Brianna that they did not even review her traffic stops. A week later, the federal way police department said that she would be suspended for one shift for violating the department's code of conduct policy in social media conduct and personal conduct. So they were all, she doesn't represent our core values and practices, but don't you worry. We're giving her a day off. That should fix everything. The so-called punishment was met with outrage by social media users. A Facebook user commented on the video saying, "If a Walmart cashier posted a video like this in uniform, they'd be fired." We hold Walmart cashiers to a higher standard than the police. People also flooded a post of Brianna's swearing in ceremony from August 2021 with demands for her to be fired. But that didn't happen. In fact, nothing further happened, which is a shame. She sounds like she could use some training and proper use of power, so she's not still gallivanting around like she's head-bitch in charge of the law. Central units, any central units, an ADW in progress, 688 South Santa Fe Avenue, 688 South Santa Fe Avenue, inside department 313, any central units, that had 180 stand by for additional. Dylan McEwan is a baby-faced, slippery little sucker who has been on the police's radar since he was in his early teens. In his mugshot from last year, when he was 19, he looks like a spotty little ginger of about 12 years old. If you saw him, you'd ask him where his parents were. And then he'd steal your car. Dylan is a sticky-fingered wee lad with a long history of burglaries and car thefts. In September 2020, when he was 17, Dylan went on a bit of a crime spree. He was stopped by police as he drove down a laneway in Bramley. Although he was barefoot, after being handcuffed by the cops, Dylan or ran from the scene. When the officers searched the car, they found a wallet in a mobile phone which had been taken during a burglary at a house in Haussford earlier that day. Dylan was circulated as wanted by the police and he was arrested the next day. The court heard that he had some help by the cops from his rag-tag little gang of local child thieves. They used bolt cutters to remove his handcaps and bought him clothes and shoes to wear. Although stealing stuff is Dylan's main occupation, he also considers himself a bit of a rapper and goes by the name's The B-town Grafter and MC McEwan. He posted a rap about his exploits on YouTube in 2020 where he talks about getting involved in criminal activities at the age of 13 and becoming a self-made man who does a lot of house burglaries by the age of 15. At least I. think that's what he's saying. The transcript feature on YouTube isn't great at interpreting accents and for some on godly reason, this one is auto-generated in Dutch, which wasn't helpful at all because I don't speak Dutch. Anyway, let's have a listen and you can decide for yourself. [Music] Shortly after getting released, Dylan par-took in another burglary at a house in Bramley, so he was again circulated as wanted. The cops got a tip off that Dylan was hiding out in a caravan parked outside a house in Wellstone Gardens. They searched the caravan and arrested Dylan as he tried to escape by climbing out of a window, like the slippery little sucker that he is. They found a mobile phone stolen in one of the burglaries in the caravan. Dylan pleaded not guilty to two counts of burglary but was found guilty of both and sentenced to a young offender institution for 25 months. At the time of the offences he was already the subject of a youth referral order for a previous burglary, or 57. His defence stated, he turned 18 at the beginning of this year, he knows that if he doesn't turn his life around he is going to be coming forward and backwards before this court. He tells me that he knows it is time to stop offending. Although Dylan may have known it was time to stop offending, he didn't actually stop doing so. Just five months after being sentenced to 25 months in a young offender institution, he was out and about committing more burglaries. On the morning of December 20th 2021, Dylan was involved in burglaries at two houses in Pudsy and Bramley. Four cars in a bunch of Christmas presents were nicked by Dylan and his little accomplices. I was thinking how shitty it is to steal Christmas presents as they might have been for little kiddies. But then I remember that Dylan robs houses with his merry band of rag-tag little kiddies and well now I just don't know how to feel. The cops pursued two of the stolen cars into the Bradford area. Dylan and two of his child accomplices who cannot be named then fillet from the cars and scamp it off. I figured these kids would be able to run pretty fast but maybe they also smoked two packs each a day as the cops were able to arrest all three of them. During their investigation into his latest crimes, officers discovered a video Dylan had posted on social media where he was driving and wrapping about his criminal activities. They submitted the footage to the court as part of the case file. The video is captioned "big whips" which is slang for expensive cars. In it Dylan wraps about creeping through people's yards and being paid for their brand new cars. Which is coincidentally what he was being charged with. Let's take a listen. On the big town graph the creep for your yard getting paid out for the brand new cars but a cart like graph like so. It's been a half of your time sitting behind bars. Detective Inspector Vicki Vessi told the court "McCuean is a prolific burglar whose offending has bought misery to his victims who have had to suffer the indignity of having their homes invaded and their property stolen. The uttered stain he has for the people he targets to steal from is abundantly clear from the lyrics in his social media post." Dylan and his two little burglar mates ended up pleading guilty to the charges. The two kids were given community rehabilitation orders and Dylan was sentenced to three years in prison. As Dylan said himself in the lyrics to "big whips" "I can't lie, graphed life's hard. You spend half your time sitting behind bars." To finish up I have a few punchline crimes for you. These are short cases that sound more like jokes than something that actually happened. In December 2015 a 20-year-old woman put in a note-worthy last-minute attempt to get herself crowned the Northern Territories' dumbest criminal of the year. Under bail conditions from a previous conviction she had to report to Kassarina police station and wouldn't you know it when she did so she not only rocked up in a stolen car but she parked it across the road from the police station in full view of the officers. One of the cops at the front desk recognised the car from a list of stolen vehicles. It had been punched from a higher car company a month earlier. When the police questioned the woman she admitted that she'd carried a bag of meth in her purse into the police station and things just went downhill from there. Officers searched the stolen car and were dumbfounded to discover another bag of meth. In total the woman had bought nearly two grams of meth and Federer means with her to go to the police station. She was charged with breaching her bail and additional drug and theft charges. Detective senior sergeant Mark Stringer told the media, "We come across some strange stuff but it's always good when the criminals are stupid because it makes our job easier." 15 out 70 south down Harbor Freway at Second Street Air 60 Christian Air 12 is broadcasting. In 2018 a 27 year old guy was arrested for driving with the suspended license by the Moses Lake Police Department in Washington. A woman named Kayla was a passenger in the car at the time but officers had no legal reason to detain her so they let her go. A subsequent search of the vehicle found a purse containing a bunch of incriminating stuff including Kayla's ID, a pistol, heroin, and her paperwork from the last time she was released from jail. As Kayla is a felony frequent flyer she was not eligible to be packing heat and well then there's the whole heroin thing. In her infinite wisdom Kayla decided it would be a great idea to go on to the MLPD's Facebook page to troll them about letting her go before searching the car. That'll show them. She commented several times on their posts to boast about getting away, including wants to say, "Here's a hint of where I'm at. Not in jail." Look that's a decent burn on her part but really not a strong enough joke to make it worthwhile becoming the MLPD's most wanted. The police were not able to locate her but rather than just put the whole thing in the later basket they decided to set up a sting. On May 20th 2018 the MLPD put up a post on their Facebook page titled, "What social media giver, social media take it away." Woman who trolled MLPD back in custody. It contained a picture of Kayla getting arrested wearing jeans and bright pink sandals with white socks. The post read, "You may recall that last week we shared a story about Kayla Isary a 19 year old woman who was contacted as a passenger on a traffic stop. She got on MLPD's Facebook page and was bragging about getting away, which we believe is the number one killer of criminal karma that there is. This morning at around 2.30am officers using covert investigative techniques set up a meeting with Kayla, ironically enough using social media." Kayla showed up and when she realised that she'd been set up she made a run for it on foot. She was caught in about four steps and booked into the grant county jail on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of heroin. Both charges were from the original incident. They completed the post with the hashtags Facebook Buzzkill, Karma, Stay there for a while and by personal favourite #SocksandSandals. In 2014 an 18 year old Irish guy named Hugh was visiting Australia on a 12 month working holiday visa. Like many of his ilk he thought the Gold Coast was the tits. Their son, their surf, their sand and their cheesy nightclubs like Sin City in surf as paradise. Sin City had a bit of a reputation for being a celeb hangout after hosting the likes of Usher and Usain Bolt. An article in the Gold Coast bulletin stated, "The club prided itself on being a risque, female bar staff were dressed in lingerie while the star attraction of its weekly ladies night was a half dressed chiseled male troop who would pose for photos." This sounds like my own personal vision of hell, but I'm not an 18 year old Irish guy who was guzzled several pints and more's the pity. You thought it was a fucking brilliant place, but unfortunately for him he kept getting kicked out. He was first given the ask that night for sleeping on a couch inside but managed to get back in and be promptly kicked back out again. Desperate to get back inside, for some reason, he broke into the roof space through a sliding door at an apartment complex next door. But his plan came unstuck when he became stuck in the air vent. First he damaged the door's lock in his failed attempt at getting back in, before becoming entangled in wires and stuck among the pipes and internal struts in the cavity. Which still sounds like more fun than the actual nightclub to me. Emergency crews were called to the club at around 130 AM after punters reported that they heard a man screaming for help. The operation to remove him safely took two hours and would have been quite embarrassing as people from the club poured out onto the street to watch. Wait hang on, isn't that that guy that got kicked out? Loozer. He was charged with trespass, willful damage and two counts of refusing to leave a license premises. In court, magistrate Ron Killner wasn't pulling any punches. He told he, drunk or sober, it was an absolutely remarkably stupid thing to have done and you only have yourself to blame. Then he found him $900 and ordered him to pay a total of $1,700 in damages to the building owners and the Queensland Fire Service. This brings me to the end of the episode. Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe if you want to stay up to date with our future episodes. And if you dug what you heard, please leave a review. Thank you to WooBanger #1 JJ from the USA for doing just that. Nice work, WooBanger. If you'd like to support this independent podcast, head on over to patreon.com/worldsdommascriminals. All levels get access to monthly bonus episodes and add free episodes. And higher levels also receive a set of fake eyelashes made out of torrential legs and a signed poster of MC McEwan. Thanks so much to Ann Berlingham for upping your pledge recently. I really appreciate it. If you're up for more dumb criminals action in your life, you could follow me on Instagram @worldsdommascriminalspodcast or Twitter @wdcriminalspod. Or you could join our world's Dommascriminals podcast Facebook group. And thank you to these jupendous Lorraine Leadwell for running the group with me. Till next time, look after yourself, stay out of trouble, and whatever you do, don't commit a crime that makes you end up on this podcast.