Facebook shock as first-date turns into armed robbery
by Steven Mostyn - Sep 5 2011, 10:28
Facing having the book thrown at you. Image: Facebook.
Remember when Facebook was a simple and innovative platform used for social interaction, casual gaming, connecting with old friends, and making a wealth of new ones? Them were the days.
However, we can now add the white-knuckle fear of enforced getaway driving to the long list of negative societal effects dumped at the feet of the world’s leading social network.
More pointedly, while some Facebook users are hit by cyber bullying, malicious Spam, and instances of identity theft, a young woman in the UK recently found herself unwittingly drawn into an armed robbery.
After meeting 21-year-old fellow Facebook user Adam Minton for a first date, 23-year-old Leah Gibbs thought everything was going well until he asked her to drive him to a nearby branch of betting agent Ladbrokes.
According to Gibbs, the date abruptly turned into a nightmare when a knife-wielding Minton burst from the betting shop wearing a black bandana and screaming ‘Go, go, go!” as he leapt into the car.
After transporting Minton home with his ill-gotten gains of 250 GBP, Gibbs then resisted his attempts to force her inside. She was saved the prospect of any further danger or criminal compliance when the police arrived and arrested both thief and unwitting getaway driver.
Released from police cells following Minton’s admittance that he acted alone, the young mother-of-two revealed that the otherwise enjoyable Facebook rendezvous had quickly descended into the “date from hell.”
“I thought I’d be ending the night in Adam’s arms,” she said in a Daily Mail report. “Instead he landed in the long arms of the law and I was facing jail.”
It was later revealed that Minton has a history of violent crime linked to a chronic cocaine habit. He has since been sentenced to four-and-a-half years At Her Majesty’s Pleasure.
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