New Jersey Woman Gave The Finger In Her Mugshot

A New Jersey woman who was arrested for a string of car burglaries gave an obscene gesture while posing for her mugshot this week.

According to the New York Post, the woman was arrested after she was caught on surveillance video breaking into cars on February 1, and further video showed her doing the same thing on two other days, all in Spotswood, New Jersey. After her arrest, during which police found burglary tools, she was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, and possession of burglary tools, the newspaper said.

And then, once she was arrested, the woman flipped the bird with both hands while her mugshot photo was taken. She is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center pending a court date. Police say a raft of car break-ins in the area had been going on for several months.

While the photo originally went viral after it was posted to the Spotswood Police Department’s Facebook page, the department later took the photo down from the page, while leaving up the description of the alleged crime.

“Due to some of the comments that were made towards the defendant, we have taken down the original post,” the department said on its page on February 11. “Please remember that although you may be a victim, know a victim, live in the area that was affected or just a citizen that is upset these types of incidents occur, please do not make any derogatory comments or comments inciting violence towards anyone on our page.”

The department went on to tell its audience that they are welcome to “post positive things about the crimes being solved even if you are upset.”

LOL what a mugshot… https://t.co/HZZ0rNwfOJ

— V101.1 Sacramento (@v1011sacramento) February 13, 2019

One commenter on the Facebook post noted that the page had been mocking defendants’ mug shots for years while pointing out that those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

Last November, a Massachusetts man was arrested for several charges, including vandalism and DUI, and he also gave the finger in his mugshot, immediately after urinating in a trashcan while handcuffed, WFLA reported at the time. A photo has floated online, including on Pinterest, of actor Johnny Depp flipping the bird in a mugshot, but the photo actually comes from the 2001 movie Blow, when Depp’s drug lord character was arrested in Chicago.

When former NBA player Greg Oden was arrested in 2014 for battery, per Die Hard Sport, he did not give the finger but was wearing a T-shirt with a silhouette of former Ohio State football player Marcus Hall giving double middle fingers to the crowd during a game the previous year.