Guy’s Mugshot Goes Viral Because Of His Massive Neck

Escambia County Sheriff's Office/Facebook

These days, there are so many ways a person could go viral that it’s never really surprising when they do.

Post a cute video of your dog doing something hilarious? Viral. Tweet about something that your children said? (We all know they didn’t by the way) Viral. Expose your ex with incriminating screenshots? Viral.

How about this one though… A man has gone viral after police posted his mugshot on their Facebook page, not because of the crime he committed or because of he ‘could be a model’, but because of the size of his neck.

Charles Dion McDowell was arrested in northern Florida for several drug offences recently, including possession of both meth and cocaine with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver.

According to police, McDowell allegedly attempted to flee from the police after they found out about his less-than-legal activities.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office posted his mugshot on the department’s Facebook:

Alongside the picture, they wrote:

Congratulations to Charles Dion McDowell, DOB: 8/12/87 *share

Charles Dion McDowell was arrested for Fleeing/Eluding Police with Lights & Sirens Active, Possession of Meth with Intent to Sell/Manufacture/Deliver, Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Sell/Manufacture/Deliver Schedule II, Possession of Controlled Substance without a Prescription, Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Equipment.

McDowell is currently a guest at the GoldStar Hotel with a bond of $57,000. #Gotcha

But people weren’t interested in his charges. Nope, the only thing grabbing pretty much everyone’s attention was the suspect’s unusually large neck.

The picture was posted to Facebook on November 13 and almost immediately it gained thousands of likes; it is currently sitting on 61K likes and has 293K comments at the time of writing (November 18).

Among the comments were people expressing their disbelief at the picture, with many believing it to be photoshopped. Others made the most of the opportunity to make neck-related puns.

One person wrote:

Y’all come on he gotta lotta weight on his shoulders right now.

While another said:

Y’all leave this man alone! I bet he’d stick his neck out for you if you needed his help. #dontjudge

And another wrote:

The arresting officer was quoted as saying: “this is by far the biggest collar of my career.”

Escambia County Sheriff's Office/Facebook

And it seems people aren’t happy with the limited information provided by the police; they’ve taken to social media to get more information about so-called ‘neck man’.

One person claims to have found footage of McDowell after bing released from prison, in which he refers to himself as a ‘free man’.

The tweet was captioned:

man with the viral wide neck… is officially out of jail.

He can be heard talking about his new-found freedom, talking to the camera while topless in a car and shouting out ‘to all of the females’.

It is not known whether this video was filmed recently or whether it is an old one. And McDowell isn’t the only prisoner to go viral after people saw his mugshot.

Ex-convict Jeremy Meeks, known as ‘hot mugshot guy’, rose to fame after his mugshot went viral when it was posted to the Stockton Police Department’s Facebook page back in 2014.

Stockton Police Department

Reports claim Meeks had been in trouble with the law on several occasions, for offences such as petty theft, suspected gang activity, and identity fraud.

Regardless of that, after his mugshot went viral and he was released from prison, a six-figure modelling contract was handed straight to the ‘world’s hottest felon’.

I mean, that’s one way of getting the job of your dreams…

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Lucy Connolly

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).