There are many criminals out there who think that donning a mask and hiding their faces will help them avoid getting caught. However, sometimes there are certain clues that they leave behind that can lead to their arrest, such is the case with a group of four teens from Maryland who were recently charged with hate crimes.
The teens had vandalized their school by plastering it with hateful words and imagery just days before their high school graduation. They were caught on camera in the act, but they thought that they were smart enough to avoid detection by wearing masks. Unfortunately for them, it seems that their phones might have given them away because of automatic WiFi login.
In order to connect to the school’s WiFi network, students are required to login with their phones with a unique ID. This will allow them to connect to the network whenever they are on campus automatically, which was what gave them away when they were busy vandalizing their school. The network had registered four of their phones as logging onto the network around 11:35pm on the 23rd of May, 2018, ultimately leading to them being identified by school administrators. The teens have since been charged with a hate crime and sentenced to probation, community service, and consecutive weekends in jail.