Have you seen this man?
A police e-fit sketch branded as the “worst ever” in the world has led to the surprising arrest of a Texas man who robbed two women at knifepoint.'
Glenn Rundles, 32, was arrested on Tuesday when a Lamar County Sheriff's Department patrolman claimed to notice a resemblance between the cartoon face and a local man who had previously had a brush with the law, despite the character in the sketch lacking lips, irises and eyebrows.
The police department faced much ridicule after it released the e-fit, which had been produced by “an experienced police artist” based on the descriptions from two victims.
Gawker was among the websites to mock the photo when it asked: “Did Two Texas Women Get Mugged By a Cartoon?”, while the Daily Mail likened the face of the suspect to that of the Plasticine animated character Morph.
It also went viral on social media sites, with users describing it as the “worst police sketch ever”.
The victims had described him as being 6 foot or a little taller, approximately 25 to 30 years old, of muscular build, and with a round face, a straight nose and short black hair.
Police defended the image, saying, “The sketch is not a true depiction of the suspect, only a likeness.”
This, however, is not the first time police have caught a suspect based on a less-than-realistic e-fit.
Authorities in Bolivia managed to arrest a suspected murderer in 2009 following the release of a sketch which, by no stretch of the imagination, bore any resemblance to a human face.
This e-fit, released by Bolivian police in 2009, led
to the arrest of a murder suspect
Rundles has now been charged with aggravated robbery, indecent exposure, and burglary following the attack on the two women in East Post Oak, Texas, on January 16.
Glenn Rundles poses on his Facebook account:
Emily Goddard