I love a good “silly criminal” story. — Dan

How to Mug Yourself?

On December 13, 1977, a 22-year-old man was pulled over for failing to stop at a stop sign. It turned out, he was also driving without a license and was arrested on the spot. The young man was brought to the local police department where he was booked, as seen above — and he didn’t seem all that worried about it. The smile on his face suggests he was more interested in getting a good mug shot than he was concerned about the crime he had committed. And that turned out to be prescient. He spent the night in the local jail but was released without further penalties, apparently, and the arrest didn’t preclude him from having future success. The person pictured above is Bill Gates, the multi-billionaire founder of Microsoft. And decades later, the company used a silhouetted version of his mugshot as the default avatar for Outlook 2010.

Gates’ mugshot though is not the norm. In most cases, the reason the police take a mugshot is to have a record of what you look like, in case you skip bail or are accused of committing another crime — it helps the authorities track you down or identify a suspect. If you’re the suspect or criminal, you probably aren’t terribly concerned with how cool your mugshot looks.

But most people aren’t Donald “Chip” Pugh, pictured below.

In November 2015, Pugh was arrested in Lima, Ohio, for allegedly driving under the influence; the picture above was taken after that. He was supposed to appear in court the next month but didn’t show up; as the Washington Post reported, he’d later say “I just chose not to go.” That, of course, makes you a fugitive, albeit one cops generally won’t care to track down. But unfortunately for Pugh, drunk driving was only the tip of the charges laid at his feet. Per another Washington Post report, the Lima police department posted the mugshot above to Facebook, noting that “Mr. Pugh is also currently a person of interest in several other cases, [including] arson and vandalism.”

The police department got a response to their request for help — from Pugh himself. He wasn’t a fan of how he looked, so he sent an updated picture, seen below.

Brave? Stupid? Both? It could go either way, but regardless, the decision gave Pugh his fifteen minutes of fame — something you probably don’t want when you’re a fugitive from the law. But Pugh leaned into it, even calling a local radio station to share his view on his pic. Per the Washington Post, he told the radio hosts “They just did me wrong. They put a picture out that had me looking like I was a Thundercat or somebody, man.” [For the record, the Thundercats are awesome and Pugh would be so lucky.]

While Pugh didn’t tell the radio station where he was, the media pickup around his story was enough to do him in. As the police department shared in January 2016, “thanks to the power of social media and tips called into authorities,” officials in Florida — far enough away from Ohio where he probably wouldn’t have been caught otherwise — located Pugh and arrested him. The Florida police also took a mugshot, and if you click that link, you’ll get to see that Pugh didn’t make the same mistake twice. This time, he’s smiling for the camera.

More About Liking Your Mugshots

Today’s Bonus fact: On November 28, 2018, the Richland, Washington police department did something similar to what Lima did above, sharing the photo of Anthony Akers, a former convict wanted for a probation violation. They didn’t need to, apparently, and Akers made that clear: he replied to the post himself, saying “Calm down, I’m going to turn myself in.” He didn’t do so immediately, so, per NBC News, “the department responded a few days later telling Akers the hours they are open,” and the conversation continued, with Akers informing the police that he just needed to handle a few “loose ends” first and would ultimately surrender himself. And he was telling the truth: within a week or so, he turned up at the police department.

From the Archives: The Man Who LIked Himself So Much, He Went to Jail: The police posted his mugshot to Facebook. He hit the “Like” button.

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And thanks! — Dan