Boston, Nov. 1, 2012—A man charged with stealing an East Boston girl’s cell phone at knifepoint was caught after he inadvertently used it to upload self-portraits to the victim’s Facebook page, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

WILMER VELASQUEZ (D.O.B. 3/27/93), who claims addresses in both East Boston and South Boston, was arraigned yesterday in East Boston District Court on a charge of armed robbery. Judge Kenneth Fiandaca set bail at $5,000, the amount requested by Assistant District Attorney Janine D’Amico. If he makes bail, Velasquez must wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and abide by a curfew of 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

The 15-year-old victim told police that she was playing with her younger brother in the playground at Bremen Street Park at around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 when two males approached her. One suspect drew a knife and told her in Spanish to hand over everything she had, making off with the victim’s myTouch phone and $15 in cash, prosecutors said.

The victim reported the theft to T-Mobile but waited until Oct. 23 to go to Boston Police. On that day, she received a replacement phone from T-Mobile and used it to log on to Facebook, prosecutors said. When she did, she found that the same male who robbed her of her cell phone had used it – apparently accidentally – to post photos of himself to her Facebook account, according to prosecutors.

Boston Police detectives disseminated the photos to other law enforcement agencies in hopes of identifying the suspect. Within a day, Velasquez was identified by a MassPort Police sergeant, a Boston Police detective, and a Chelsea District Court probation officer.

With that identifying information in hand, Boston Police detectives obtained a warrant for Velasquez’ arrest and later took him into custody.

“With offenses like harassment, child enticement, and fraud, social media has in some ways made law enforcement more difficult,” Conley said. “Every now and then, though, it makes our job much, much easier.”

Velasquez is represented by Jonathan Scott Lauer. He is due back in court on Nov. 26.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.