Man posts on Facebook about having 16 warrants, arrested same day

There are many, many, many things people shouldn’t brag about on Facebook, and having more than a dozen warrants out for your arrest is definitely one of them. That was a hard lesson learned by 22-year-old Mineral Wells, Texas resident Eddie Smith, who seemingly misplaced his brain when he boasted on his public Facebook page, “So I have 16 warrants right now. Lol they know where I’m at tho, so it must not be TOO bad.”

Here’s the original post:

Someone saw Eddie’s update and reported it to the Mineral Springs Police Department. Detective Nick Wells tells the Star-Telegram, “We got to digging, came up with a good address and we went out and paid him a visit.”

That “visit” resulted in Eddie being arrested on January 20 for 14 outstanding warrants (it seems he didn’t even have his math right) for a slew of relatively minor offenses that included numerous traffic citations, no insurance, and petty theft. The fines he owed totaled more than $1,200, which Eddie could not afford to pay. As a result, he was reportedly ordered to serve 51 days in jail.

Here’s Eddie’s (full name Edward Glen Smith) mug shot photo:

“It’s one of those things where you can poke fun at a lot of things,” Detective Wells said. “Don’t poke fun at us. We’ll take care of it.”

Marketing savvy Police Chief Dean Sullivan took advantage of the Super Bowl season to use a football analogy to describe the situation. “The NFL calls it ‘unsportsmanlike conduct — excessive celebration,’ a 15-yard penalty,” he said. “We’ll just call it ‘genius’ and leave it at that.”

Meanwhile, Eddie has apparently been released and was back on Facebook on January 21. He commented on a Mineral Wells Police Officers Association post about the story going viral with the comment, “Hahaha Thank you for Plastering me on the News.” He even briefly changed his profile picture to his mug shot photo.

Eddie then used Facebook to talk with the Mineral Wells Index about the incident. “Lol Yeah. I made a mistake I know. I learned my lesson,” he wrote. “At least it’s a hurdle I’m jumped over because it could’ve caught me at a much more tender spot in my life in the future. It’s done. It’s over with. I got what I asked for.”

The 22-year-old points out that he has a son (featured in his profile photo when he made the original ill-fated post) and is thankful things played out the way they did because it could have been much worse. “It’s never a good time to go to jail,” he said, “But, what if I had been driving with my son and gotten pulled over? I didn’t even know I had the warrants until I posted the status,” he added. “This is a minor set back for a major comeback for me. And I’m fine with that.”