Better mug shot
The police had a mug shot of 45-year-old Donald ‘Chip’ Pugh from a prior arrest and they had used it when issuing a warrant for his arrest last week. Mr. Pugh had failed to show up in court for a hearing on a misdemeanour charge of drunk driving.
He did not like the photo they used when publishing the warrant — it was on the police website and Facebook page — so he sent along a better one. In it he’s wearing sunglasses and looking pretty cool. “Here is a better photo that one is terrible,” Mr. Pugh wrote.
Police, who say they have not had any other contact with him, obliged him and put that photo up with the other. They’ve gotten some 1,000 responses on Facebook to it all and some, Lt. Andy Green says, have been helpful in figuring out where he might be.
Police seek Pugh
The Lima police Facebook page said that Pugh is “also currently a person of interest in several other cases including an arson and vandalism.”
“This photo was sent to us by Mr. Pugh himself,” their Facebook page adds. “We thank him for being helpful, but now we would appreciate it if he would come speak to us…about his charges.”
Many on Facebook have shared the photos and story and some have started a ‘Free Donald Pugh’ movement. Meanwhile, a New York radio station, 104.9 FM, actually located and interviewed the wanted man over the phone.
Mr. Pugh told them he has no plans to turn himself in. “It went viral in a way,” he said of his story. “I started having fun with it. I became a hometown hero. I can’t help but run with it.”
Hip looking mug shot or not — he’d better keep running.
