SAN ANTONIO — Live Oak police say a city-installed game camera was stolen from the City's Code Enforcement department, and social media was used to help track a suspect down. But something else made it even easier for the department to find him.
Live Oak police say what the suspect didn't know, amazingly, was that after the camera was stolen it was still transmitting pictures back to the police department.
"Code Enforcement called me and told me that the pictures were being transmitted," Lt. Jesse Barela from the Live Oak Police Department told us. "So they sent me a picture of the suspect. So I put an email out with us and other agencies and we were able to identify the suspect."
They sent us just a few of the pictures that were posted online. You could clearly see a man in a bed with the name Martinez tattooed on his arm, and also a woman in one of the pictures. The pictures, combined with Facebook posts from several police departments, is how Live Oak Police were able to identify the male suspect.
"The pictures are of two subjects in a bedroom," Lt. Barela added. "So one of the suspects has his tattoos tattooed all over the place on his arms, neck. And we were able to get him identified through the tattoos."
Code Enforcement had placed the game camera at 10800 O'Connor Road. When the camera was stolen they immediately contacted Live Oak PD.
"What I did is I put an email out to the guys here, and then we also posted on Facebook where we work closely with other agencies, and they went ahead to put up post for us," Lt. Barela said. "When they put up the post we got a hit saying that the suspect was identified."
Live Oak police were the ones searching for the suspect but they tell us it was actually the San Antonio Police Department who made the arrest.
"The suspect was arrested by SAPD and we're in the process of going to interview the suspect at the magistrate's office," Lt. Barela told us.
Live Oak police say the suspect now faces a charge of either theft or stolen property.