Federal authorities managed to track down a white woman accused of setting police cars on fire during the George Floyd protests in Philadelphia using Etsy. Investigators searched on Instagram and combed through hundreds of photographs from the protests trying to identify those responsible for starting the fires.
The woman seen starting the fires was wearing large goggles and a mask, making it nearly impossible to identify her. As agents searched through the photos, they learned that her custom-made t-shirt, which read: "Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Racists," was purchased on Etsy. FBI agents found the page where the t-shirt was sold and uncovered a comment from a user who had purchased the same shirt.
They googled the user's screen name and found a page belonging to "Lore-Elisabeth" on Poshmark, which then led them to the LinkedIn page of Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal. They discovered she worked as a massage therapist for a company in Philadelphia and used videos on the company's Vimeo channel to identify tattoos that matched Blumenthal to the woman at the protests.
Once they had established that Blumenthal was the same woman in the photographs, they took her into custody. She was charged with two counts of felony arson and faces up to 80 years behind bars along with a fine of $500,000.
"We at the U.S. Attorney's Office fully support the First Amendment right of the people to assemble peaceably and to petition their government. But torching a police car has nothing to do with peaceful protest or any legitimate message. It is a violent and despicable act that will be prosecuted in this District to the fullest extent of the law," said United States Attorney William M. McSwain. "Anybody who engaged in such acts can stand by to put your hands behind your back and head to federal prison. We are coming for you."
Photo: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania