OCEAN CITY — A New York man was arrested on vehicle theft and other serious charges over the weekend after allegedly swiping a Jeep from a midtown nightclub parking lot and then recording the incident and a trip down Coastal Highway that followed on Snapchat.
Shortly before 11 a.m. last Saturday, Ocean City Police responded to Seacrets parking lot for a reported stolen vehicle. The initial investigation revealed the 1994 Jeep Wrangler had been stolen earlier that morning at around 2 a.m. OCPD officers located the stolen Jeep parked at a condominium building in the area of 37th Street, but were unable initially to identify a suspect.
Brian Engelmann
Around 8 p.m. that evening, OCPD officers developed information that a suspect, later identified as Brian S. Engelmann, 24, of Mystic Beach, N.Y., had posted a series of videos on the popular social media platform Snapchat showing him stealing the Jeep earlier that morning. OCPD officers were able to locate and record a series of videos posted on Snapchat to identify Engelmann as the suspect. The videos also showed Engelmann stealing the Jeep and driving erratically to 37th Street.
A further review of Engelmann’s Snapchat “story” revealed he had returned to the same nightclub that evening. OCPD officers responded to the bar and were able to locate and arrest Engelmann with the assistance of nightclub security.
Ocean City Police charged Engelmann with vehicle theft in addition to multiple traffic violations that could be seen during the initial series of videos he had posted on Snapchat including using a handheld phone while driving, negligent driving and driving on a suspended license. He was taken before a District Court Commissioner before being transferred to the Worcester County Jail on a $20,000 bond.
