Facebook replaces footwork for investigators as social media sleuths solve robbery

Armed robbers covered their faces Tuesday night, but their gait gave them away in minutes.

Video of an armed robbery at the convenience store at Ga. 36 East and Halls Bridge Road in Butts County was posted on Facebook shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The sheriff’s office phone started ringing off the hook.

“Facebook is a powerful, powerful tool,” Butts County Sheriff Gary Long said. “I knew that somebody would identify them.”

Long jokingly called in the FBI on the case, his “Facebook Investigators,” who manned the phones.

Tips and copies of texts flowed into the office.

One of the suspects allegedly was asking friends if they had seen Facebook.

“I’m scared to death. We did an armed robbery,” one of them reportedly texted.

Before long, two of the fathers brought in the three 18-year-olds Wednesday evening, Long said.

Isaiah James Watson and Jakob Trent Naulta, both of High Falls, and Nichols Caleb Faulkner, of Barnesville, are charged with armed robbery.

Deputies recovered the backpack, money bag, bandanas and clothing worn during the robbery, but not the gun used.

The suspects said they sold the weapon, but Long isn’t buying it.

“I personally think it’s been thrown in a lake somewhere,” he said.

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 11:17 AM with the headline "Facebook replaces footwork for investigators as social media sleuths solve robbery."