Instagram has been busy with criminal threats as of late, but this time the posting was used to seek help.
On Sunday, August 17, just hours Santa Clarita deputies arrested the minor that was posting threats on Instagram, deputies were once again called from a concerned resident, worried about a threat posted on Instagram.
According to the report, deputies immediately started an investigation on the Instagram post. This time, there was only one post that the caller was concerned about. However, the post did not have explicit threats, rather it was a screen shot from a texting conversation between two students; The student receiving the threats was from Canyon High School and the other student, who was sending the threats, was unknown. The threats included comments regarding school violence.
Deputies were able to locate the student that posted the texting conversation. It was concluded that he was receiving threats from an unknown phone number. Detectives later determined that the sender was using an app that gives a new phone number and allows the user to send text messages for free. After further investigation, they were able to locate the student who was sending school threats. He was identified as a 13-year-old from Canyon High School as well. The sender was apparently friends with the recipient, who was not aware of who the sender was. After talking to the suspect, the detectives concluded that the suspect sent those texts to his friend as a practical joke. It turned out that the friend did not take it as a joke, and before the suspect could reveal himself, the friend had already made a post to Instagram.
The 13-year-old juvenile was taken into custody, and will be released into the custody of the Los Angeles Country Probation Department.
Surprisingly, both of the Instagram incidents were not related in any way. It kind of seems as if these Instagram posts are the start of a new criminal trend.
