WASHINGTON — If you’re going to break the law, you probably shouldn’t put photos showing it on a public Facebook page. Maryland Natural Resources Police say Facebook pictures helped lead to the conviction of two men for stealing crabs last summer.
Both from Pasadena, Maryland, 37-year-old John Allen Schuman and 31-year-old Leslie Eugene Jenne III were sentenced Friday in Anne Arundel District Court. Each will serve 30 days in jail, pay court costs and remain on probation for a year.
“These two men were stealing from hard-working watermen and depriving them of their livelihoods,” Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police Col. George F. Johnson IV said in a news release.
Johnson says tips from the community and watermen reporting thefts helped lead to the men’s arrest.
“This is a classic example how, working together, we can bring law-breakers to justice,” Johnson said in the release.
Natural Resources officers say Schuman and Jenne tried talking their way out of getting arrested the night of Sept. 15, 2014, by saying their boat’s propeller had wrapped around a crab pot line. They said they only lifted the pot to free it, then kept the crabs.
Officers say the amount of mud and algae on the boat suggested more had been going on. Area watermen reported the next day that 43 pots had been lifted.
Watermen had previously reported crab pots being raided as frequently as twice a week for several months.
The NRP officers say the men’s boat registration matched a tip they’d received. Also, the boat was pulled over after a caller reported a boat in the area making regular late-night trips without proper running lights up Bodkin Creek.
Schuman’s Facebook page also helped the investigation, according to police. He’d posted several night time crabbing pictures with time stamps indicating the photos had been taken between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.
So, when Blue Crab season opens in Maryland next week on April 1, Schuman and Jenne won’t be on the water, they’ll be sitting in jail.
