Googling For Prospective Date Unmasks Fugitive 381
pgrote writes "So you're a guy on the run - you decide to switch towns, put down some roots and start dating again. But if your special new friend happens to be someone who checks her potential dates by searching on Google, you're in trouble. Seems that LaShawn Pettus-Brown was caught by his date's discovery of him on an FBI site of fugitives, even after local Cincinnati news media couldn't find him. Score one for the Internet."
I had a similar experience (Score:3, Interesting)
Then I searched Google for the address and learned that the previous owner had died in the house.
He was in the attic working on the electrical when a small fire broke out. He got the fire out but died from the smoke.
His father was selling the house.
It was all a little too much for me.
-Jackson
Darwin Award potential here (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess I'm safe (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously tho, anybody who dates somebody off the internet without at least having a go at googling their name, is nearly as stupid as anybody who's got an outstanding arrest warrant and gives out their real name.
Tsk, tsk... no using Googling as a verb... (Score:2, Interesting)
Especially as a gerund !
Contrary to popular [google.com] belief, Google is not supposed to be a verb [wikipedia.org]
Google decidedly does not approve. [slashdot.org]
Background checks (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I had a similar experience (Score:2, Interesting)
True story. The killers name was Leslie Allen Williams and I believe within the next couple of years, he was killed in prison.
Re:I had a similar experience (Score:5, Interesting)
The awkward thing is that one one of her friends, while helping her move in, took a swig from the 7-Up bottle in the fridge. Turns out that bottle of 7-Up was part of the dead former owner's last meal.
Re:damn (Score:2, Interesting)
As popular as amiafugitiveornot.com [amiafugitiveornot.com]?
Re:Technology is a double edged sword.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, people are dating others whom they haven't even met, and who might be only telling lies to them, so clearly there's a need for this.
It's like an incorporation of romance and love. If you're running a small business or a small store, you will very likely know your customers (and employees) very well and be able to trust them without too many problems, but when business scale up and become increasingly large, there's no way that you can account for all of the people, or know them personally, and so there's record-keeping and spying and every such thing.
Obviously with online (or more anonymous) dating you have access to so many more potential mates, which improves selection and makes things somewhat easier, but all the anonymity and deception makes me wonder if this whole trend is actually a good thing or not.
But all this doesn't affect me. Joining slashdot is like taking a vow of celibacy.
Re:LaShawn (Score:3, Interesting)
How would it be different if he had been named Shawn Brown, instead of LaShawn Petus-Brown? He'd still be 'wanted', there would still be numerous news articles about him, including his picture, and she still might have called the FBI to check him out.
The only difference is that there would have been more hits on that name.
When I was a little kid, a little girl named Emma would have been snickered at. That was an 'old lady' name. Today, that's a very common girls name.
Times change. Names change. Live with it.
I did the same thing with a neighbor... (Score:5, Interesting)
"Another accused hooker, Katherine Saddler, 35, answered the phone at Sunnymede.
"When we have something to say, we'll say it," said Saddler, who was also
charged with possession of nine bags of heroin. "
Yep, that was my neighbor. A few more searches resulted in two open arrest warrents for her in NJ, time spent in prison, and several other convictions of assult and death threats. So the moral of the story is, if you have suspicions, it doesn't hurt to take 1 minute to run a quick google search.
Re:Technology is a double edged sword.. (Score:5, Interesting)
In my personal experience, it's just like globalization and open markets: real scary if you are engaged in deception, and absolutely fantastic if you want lots of choice.
A few years ago, in my early thirties, I decided it was finally time to find a wife. I was (finally) ready to commit. My parents urged me to "shop around". So I did, using means an admittedly very shy geek can do: online sites (ie, match.com) and personal-intro services (ie, Table For Six).
To make a long story short, I met a lot more women in a few months than I had in the previous 10 years, despite my introverted nature. After dating a few of them, I wound up marrying a very nice woman. And -- please forgive me, I cannot resist saying this -- she's a stunning blonde, tall, gorgeous, busty, and has a degree in mathematics. Ca-Ching!
Probably I shouldn't post this and probably most people will assume I'm an ad-bot, but the 2 or 3 people who know me that read slashdot know I'm on the level.
Anyway, I'm all for improving selection and making things easier. Go for it. If you're introverted like myself, it could be the difference between passing along your genes or not! Hell, we desperately need smart people to procreate...
Re:LaShawn (Score:3, Interesting)
There are far better ways to express individuality than naming a poor infant LeDeZeppelin.
Have you taken a look at a baby name book lately? They're full of all kinds of crappy names that will turn a reasonable set of DNA into a watchtower-dwelling rifle toter.
The Social Security Administration's web site has a pretty neat feature... for the last 12 years, they've kept statistics on the 1000 most popular baby names [ssa.gov] each year, for boys and girls. They've got all kinds of features, such as searching on a particular name for its rankings, top five names in each state, and so on.
When my husband and I were mulling over children's names, for the boy's we started at 40 and read down the whole list to get ideas. For girls, we started at 300. (Though we ended up picking a girl's name from another source.)
Names go through fads. Jennifer was the number one girl's name from about 1969 to 1987. And couldn't I tell, when half the girls I went to school with were Jennifer, Jen, Jenny, Jennie... right now, the fad is kinda weird, but we'll get to a point (in about 60 years) when those will all be "old lady" or "old man" names.
Not just for dates (Score:1, Interesting)
The company I work for is one of those tight-lipped "we aren't telling the employees anything" sort of shops.
One day I was bored and googled for both of the names my company is associated with.
Paranoid bastards shouldn't create companies with unique names that partner with other compies who release press releases.
I learned more from one night searching in google then I ever did working at the company.
Re:Technology is a double edged sword.. (Score:5, Interesting)
This has been going on since at least the mid-16th Century [tudorhistory.org], complete with their version of Photoshop [englishhistory.net].
I was once worrie about this... (Score:3, Interesting)
So I told my wife-to-be right away, and she thought it was funny also....still I have to wonder who else I know that might just google my name! >:(
Googling bad eBayers and scammers (Score:4, Interesting)
For instance - one time I had an eBayer email me telling me I should be ashamed for selling a Bang & Olufsen turntable at the price I was selling it at. Turns out - it was HIS that he sold to someone in Charlotte (nearby) - they in turn sold it to a Pawn Shop - I bought it for a deal (under $100) - come to find out - he only got $35 for it on eBay - he had left negative feedback for the buyer because the buyer made him sell it to him (he didn't have a reserve. To make a long story longer - It turns out he starts harassing my bidders, telling them not to buy from me. I google and find something similar to this with his email address attached.
Gay male looking in Colorado (Denver Area) for discreet meetings - no kinky stuff but very adventurous. Since he had bid in my auction (fraudulently) I instantly ended the auction and made him the winner by cancelling other bids. I threatened to post the information to several websites and his feedback. I never heard from him again.
I have ALWAYS googled anyone's email address before I met them from match.com - although usually a girl's email address won't show up with any results.
I occasionally google my email address and always get new stuff - usually 4-5 of my slashdot replies show up.