An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
To some extent, every Internet user leaves a digital trail. So when a masked arsonist was seen on video setting fire to a police car on the day of a recent protest in Philadelphia, the fact that her face was hidden didn’t prevent a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent from tracking down the suspect. The keys ended up being a tattoo and an Etsy review the alleged arsonist had left for a T-shirt she was wearing at the scene of the crime, according to the FBI…
Even with video and photos, the FBI wasn’t yet able to identify the suspect because her face wasn’t visible. But the T-shirt she wore was unique and sold on Etsy, so FBI agents read the reviews on the seller’s Etsy page to see if anyone from the Philadelphia area had purchased it. Blumenthal had left a 5-star review that said, “Fast shipping, thanks very much!” from her username “alleycatlore,” and her Etsy profile displayed her location as Philadelphia, the affidavit said.
The FBI did not yet have her full name, so they did a search for “alleycatlore” and found a user on the online fashion marketplace Poshmark “with a display name of ‘lore-elisabeth,'” the affidavit said. A search for “Lore Elisabeth” in Philadelphia turned up “a LinkedIn profile… Pictures of the alleged arsonist showed a tattoo of a peace sign on her right forearm, and that tattoo was visible in a four-year-old video of Lore Elisabeth performing a massage on her business’s website. The website had a phone number for Lore Elisabeth… From Lore Blumenthal’s Etsy review of a T-shirt, her profiles on Poshmark and LinkedIn, and the tattoo visible on a video posted to her massage therapy website, the FBI found the details they needed to match the arsonist seen in photos and video to government records, the affidavit said…
“If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of eighty years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $500,000,” a press release from the Department of Justice and US Attorney’s office said.
One local news site reported Blumenthal faces only a maximum possible sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
But she’s currently being held in jail without bail until her trial begins.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot