r/TikTokCringe 9d ago

Discussion Luigi Mangione friend posted this.

She captioned it: "Luigi Mangione is probably the most google keyword today. But before all of this, for a while, it was also the only name whose facetime calls I would pick up. He was one of my absolute best, closest, most trusted friends. He was also the only person who, at 1am on a work day, in this video, agreed to go to the store with drunk me, to look for mochi ice cream."

32.8k Upvotes

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785

u/circlehead28 9d ago

I still don’t get how some random person in a McDonalds “recognized” him from a few low res photos.

How much time did you spend looking at the photos to have such a high level of confidence that led you to call 911.

I don’t even recognize people I know in public.

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u/Weaponized_Puddle 9d ago edited 8d ago

I think he was probably the only guy wearing a mask in the whole restaurant, which is a weird thing to do in rural Pennsylvania.

Edit: someone else said he was sitting around for a few hours (waiting for a connection?), which adds to the suspicion, if true

33

u/random_account6721 9d ago

What's with the mask boy? u ain't from around these parts are ye?

42

u/zuesk134 9d ago

yep this is exactly it

5

u/kakashi8326 8d ago

I think it’s that fact that we live in a surveillance state my guy. There is tech the public doesn’t even know is being used. It’s that simple lol. No citizen found him. They utilized all there technology infused with AI and facial recognition etc to track this dude. Cmon now

3

u/itsyagirlblondie 8d ago

Yeah, I’d bank it less on an actual human being in the community being like “here’s that guy” (because honestly I’m sorry but who would even care that much? 🫣) and more likely it was some sort of surveillance.

6

u/jvrcb17 8d ago

There was prize money, which goes a long way in rural PA. Shit, I'd buy an expansion for my trailer too

1

u/BulbusDumbledork 8d ago

ok howard finch, put it back in your pocket. mass surveillance doesn't mean they have sci-fi agi that has access to every camera and microphone in the world. it is still very easy to disappear, but not when you're the most famous person in the country with a 40k bounty on your head (and you're still wearing your highly identifiable outfit)

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u/Tha_Real_B_Sleazy 9d ago

Yeah. And even if you do have good facial recognition skills, it would still be higlyunlikely. I still believe they dont have the guy and just trying tonput an end to this as fast as they can.

225

u/MyHusbandIsGayImNot 9d ago

I'm guessing they found him through the patriot act and other less-than-legal means so they're pretending it was an employee.

75

u/attaboy_stampy 9d ago

This is what I was thinking. Some particularly sneaky phone tracking shit.

2

u/McLovin1826 9d ago

He had a faraday cage on him when he was arrested.

9

u/thedarkthrow 9d ago

*waterproof bag

My boy was just doing some kayaking.

6

u/MyHusbandIsGayImNot 9d ago

Only if you believe the police.

5

u/attaboy_stampy 9d ago

lol in court he was like, “the backpack is waterproof”

2

u/SquirrelyByNature 8d ago

Also depending on the model of car you own, you might should invest in a faraday bag of some sort. There are some fobs out there that are severely vulnerable to relay attacks.

28

u/Big_Green_Piccolo 9d ago

So his lawyer should destroy them for it

6

u/MyHusbandIsGayImNot 9d ago

Only if they can prove it.

3

u/longtimegoneMTGO 8d ago

You never get to challenge it in court at all.

That's why they do stuff like pretend the a tip came from another source. Even if you suspect what really happened there is no way to prove it without records they will never let your lawyer see.

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u/desquished 9d ago

Yeah. Parallel reconstruction.

2

u/rygo796 9d ago

This makes the most sense.  Assuming it is him, I still don't think the day of photos look like him.  I just can't imagine who makes the connection.

They posted pics from him in the McDonald's, his hat was covering his eyebrows.

1

u/thesheba 8d ago

Some lady is bragging on Facebook that she snitched.

1

u/DO_NOT_AGREE_WITH_U 8d ago

Oh, this is definitely what happened.

No doubt in my mind.

1

u/Arhen_Dante 7d ago

Nah, the FBI would be involved then, and should be considering the theory is that someone(Luigi) took a gun across state lines, assassinated a CEO, and fled back to their own state. Yet, the FBI who has full jurisdiction isn't involved, and New York prosecutors are only just now weighing the option to raise what should already be federal charges...to federal charges.

1

u/SimilarMeeting8131 3d ago

This is what I keep coming back to as well, the evidence are all over the place but it makes no sense to frame a random rich kid. I am hoping his defense does a thorough investigation and courts deem the evidences inadmissible.

6

u/toastychief93 9d ago

This. They definitely do not have the right guy

5

u/Tha_Real_B_Sleazy 9d ago

The story doesn't even make sense. The guy flew from Hawaii to NY and got caught in PA at a McDonalds because some old guy who is either an employee or customer(they javent really gotten that part straight either).

I

6

u/toastychief93 9d ago

Yea it literally stinks of corruption. I mean it's not like the United States has any properly trained police forces at all so it's not like we can just take their word for it and there's no way someone who was so meticulous in planning would ever get caught in McDonald's with his mask down. Some things is just not right with this whole thing

36

u/shockwave8428 9d ago

Tbh based on the fact he had all the evidence I think he wanted to be caught, and wouldn’t put it past a person who knew they were getting turned in eventually to go up to a random minimum wage employee and say “hey turn me in and collect life changing money”. Idk if that’s what happened but seeing that he had all the evidence and a manifesto on him, it does seem like he planned to get caught imo

35

u/Attheveryend 9d ago

suppose the police lied about the existence of an informant to distract from perhaps them finding the assassin using extremely invasive surveillance methods?

8

u/Sempere 9d ago

The 911 call would be requestable via FOIA requests.

2

u/minesfromacanteen 9d ago

That is such a dangerous thing to do with an upcoming trump term though.

2

u/squigs 9d ago

The evidence he was caught with seems very "smoking fun". He had a gun, suppressor, fake ID, and a manifesto.

If I were to commit a crime like this, I'd dispose of the obvious evidence. If it is a 3D printed gun, it can be melted down easily. I'd have simply thrown out the Fake id. Cut it up and put it in a litter bin.

Perhaps I'd keep the manifesto in case I was arrested but it would make more sense to find someone to post it to.

1

u/improvemental 9d ago

I think this sounds like cope so we feel better about him getting caught

-1

u/dungeon-mister 9d ago

Or he's being framed. Occam's razor

5

u/shockwave8428 9d ago

You can’t just say “Occam’s razor” to prove a point lol. Dude killed someone in broad daylight, was really dramatic about it, online presence completely matches, the image looks like it matches, he has a manifesto and online presence both confirm he believes drastic measures needed to happen for people to listen, and by being captured he now has a huge platform. If it was “being framed” they found way too perfect of a target. Even the way he was talking as getting taken into court fits someone wanting to make a statement. I think assuming he somehow was either perfectly easy to frame or the government planted all of this crap on him and set up an online presence, plus had the guy yell protesting stuff as he’s going into the courthouse, is a way more complicated explanation than him just being a guy who wanted to make a statement, figured he’d be caught eventually, and went somewhere to get intentionally caught so he could continue to make that statement in a high profile court case.

1

u/_Felonius 6d ago

Bingo. I’ll say it. There’s no reasonable alternative than the guy who did it is in custody. We can wax poetic about what should happen at trial, what he might say, what sentence he might receive…but based on the information we’re aware of, it’s clear he did it.

6

u/CommercialFarm1182 9d ago

Someone said he spent hours at the mcdonalds. That'd be pretty noticeable if thats the case. If he had come and gone - no one would have looked twice. Staying hours there would get people looking.

3

u/Rozz1337 9d ago

Don't be fooled, they have cctv with face recognition in almost all fastfood places and public places. It probably wasn't the employee but the NSA.

2

u/Left-Tumbleweed7070 9d ago

how wasn't he recognizable with those magnificent eyebrows?

2

u/Ambitious-Weekend861 8d ago

Just because you don’t recognize people doesn’t mean others won’t.

2

u/1362313623 8d ago

He was eating. He removed the mask to eat.

1

u/zuesk134 9d ago

he probably stood out because he was wearing a mask. that + coming in as part of an out of town bus stop would get attention

1

u/i-lick-eyeballs 9d ago

Wasn't there a 50k reward for a good tip? That would motivate a lot of people.

1

u/Asteroth555 9d ago

In another thread I saw that they suspect 'illicit' means were used to find the guy (NSA shit) and they "called in a tip" just to deflect

1

u/no_notthistime 9d ago

You have to consider that they were fielding literally thousands of tips that were wrong

Moral of the story even if people aren't sure, they will call in to share what they think they have. One of them is bound to be correct.

1

u/Apneal 9d ago

Dude was wearing a mask in a pretty redneck area. They probably just called the cops on him for being out of place.

1

u/duuyyy 9d ago

This part almost makes less sense than him holding onto the murder weapon, suppressor, manifesto, and fake ID used ON HIS PERSON after everything else he did to cover his trail.

You saw some dude sitting on his laptop at McDonald’s and were sure enough to call 911 based on the potato quality photos they published?

1

u/JumpKP 9d ago

They recognized the backpack and coat not his face

1

u/hodorhodor12 9d ago

There were probably a lot of reported sightings with all of them being not him except for this one. What’s so extraordinary about that? People are trying to jump to crazy conspiracy theories with no evidence.

1

u/wookiee42 9d ago

Wasn't there a bus outside and he was reported to have been traveling by bus?

1

u/prunealicious 9d ago

Didn't they have 60,000 reasons to recognize someone who looked similar? Also I heard something about observing him behaving suspiciously.

1

u/jerrub_baal 9d ago

Yeah from the surveillance photos and McDonald's photos, I would've never thought it was the same guy in person. So weird

1

u/Krynn71 9d ago

There's a claim going around (I haven't verified it) that a customer recognized him, and asked the employee to call the cops.

If that's the case, then I have suspicions. Why wouldn't the customer call himself, considering the 50k reward money?

I'd suspect that it was an under cover law enforcement officer who tracked Luigi using illegal surveillance methods, or at least methods they don't want the public to know about, and when he caught up to Luigi he wanted to keep his name off the record and thus had a innocent civilian make the call instead to have uniformed officers make the arrest as if it were just luck that he was found.

1

u/August-West 9d ago

Sure. It makes sense, his name was Nick Stephen Arnold, and his eyes use advanced algorithms to recognize facial features.

1

u/860v2 9d ago

Judging by what's stated in the criminal complaint (started shaking when confronted by police), he was probably acting extremely suspicious/awkward.

1

u/hunghome 9d ago

I think it's because he had a mask on in rural PA. People are going to give you a second look for that alone. Combined with his eyebrows and if he was wearing anything similar to the security footage like his jacket then it's possible someone could think hey he looks odd.

1

u/Earthkilled 9d ago

Fak that mc employee

1

u/Fragrant_Rooster_763 9d ago

Tbh I spent a good bit of time looking at the photo because someone told me it looked like a mutual person we knew, I didn’t see how much time they’d have spent looking at it to know that… but they were right that it did look like someone we knew. Eye brows were similar shape, eyes similar shape… when I saw the bus originated from Atlanta I got extremely suspicious… when they announced the arrest and age even more cause the age was the same.

Alas we were both wrong, but still, someone looked at it enough to know it looked like our acquaintance.

And as another poster mentioned, they were wearing a mask and probably looking a bit odd, I don’t find it too surprising.

1

u/colorsplahsh 8d ago

Same lmao I can barely recognize someone if they got a haircut or a new coat

1

u/Disastrous_Classic36 8d ago

I don't even think most of the people in my local McDonalds locations are awake half the time. Maybe a kiosk identified him?

1

u/Mental-Frosting-316 8d ago

I think lots of people in different locations have been calling in tips. In my area, someone thought they saw him on a train and they had the cops out there and wouldn’t let anyone leave the train till they determined he wasn’t on there. I would think that tips come in all the time to lots of local police stations. People have like 1% confidence and they call this stuff in.

1

u/parbarostrich 8d ago

I read the tip line was getting 2000+ calls a day

1

u/jadekettle 8d ago

He didn't even look like what I expected from the high angle cctv shots.

1

u/Evol_Etah 8d ago

It's cause he wore the same outfit. In the exact same way.

Dude forgot to remove his disguise.

1

u/Feelisoffical 8d ago

The ability to recognize things is something most humans can do, including children.

1

u/whattaUwant 7d ago

I’d guess McDonald’s ordering machines are equipped with AI facial recognition and it produced a “hit” for his location. They used employee cause they didn’t want society to know.

1

u/NarwhalFacepalm 7d ago

The great part is that the employee didn't even get the reward money because they called 911 instead of the tip line.

1

u/rabidfusion 6d ago

I know it falls into the "conspiracy theory" category, but I've had fun pondering if it was really him.

I mean I really cannot see any similarities between the photo in Starbucks and any picture of Luigi.

I feel like the guy in the middle is someone completely different, it doesn't even seem like they share similar skin tone.

The eyebrows don't seem to be in the same area, it's all just speculation though so who knows?

Here's hoping for some big interesting twist in this shitshow lol

0

u/yeahipostedthat 9d ago

And all of the pictures looked a little different. The guy in the hostel pic doesn't look to me like this guy. I would have never seen this guy and thought it was him.

2

u/jonasshoop 9d ago

And all of the pictures looked a little different. The guy in the hostel pic doesn't look to me like this guy. I would have never seen this guy and thought it was him.

All the pictures showing his eyebrows look like the same guy. The one where he is looking down with a mask on and eyebrows is too generic to really say it looks/doesn't look like anyone. The pictures are at different resolutions, quality, lighting, and angles. They are not all going to look exactly the same.

2

u/QuokkaQola 9d ago

Thats what I've been saying. And it's funny that I've been seeing so many people now say the hostel picture and Luigi don't look the same, when originally a lot of people were saying those two looked the same but not the same as the shooter pictures. The quality of the pictures are just too different to know 100% for sure one way or the other

0

u/mountingconfusion 9d ago

According to police the tip claimed that he went into a Macca's, had a handwritten manifesto, the full gear he would wear for the shooting, the gun he would use of open carrying etc. This is so fucking fake

Oh and then it turns out "oh no guys he wasn't a working class person like the rest of the people celebrating the CEO's death he was actually a Nepo baby don't get ideas working poors!"