'Hot felon' mug shot goes viral

Female Facebookers are swooning over a dreamy-eyed stranger. There's only one problem—he's behind bars. 30-year-old Jeremy Meeks' mugshot went viral Thursday, racking up thousands of likes and comments in less than 24 hours on the social media site. Meeks, a convicted felon, was arrested Wednesday on five weapons charges and one gang charge, according to Officer Joseph Silva, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department. Silva declined to say what Meeks was previously convicted of, saying the department does not routinely release information about a suspect's criminal history.

'Hot felon' mugshot goes viral

No previous arrest photo has garnered so much positive attention since the department set up the Facebook page in March 2012, Silva told The Associated Press. "I have not seen that many likes for a photo before," he said. Some comments read: "OMG he's waaaay too sexy to go in a cell—bring him to me, I'll lock him up," and "being that sexy is obviously illegal." Or maybe the illegal part could be that Meeks is a repeat offender in California, currently charged with felony terrorism and weapons charges. He's also married and a father. But none of that is rattling his admirers. One person even offered to donate money to bail him out. Meeks was one of four men taken into custody during Operation Ceasefire, a multiagency mission to curb a recent increase in shootings and robberies in the Weston Ranch area of Stockton, a Northern California city of about 300,000 nestled amid the network of waterways that form the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Four firearms were confiscated during a sweep Wednesday involving the Stockton police gang unit, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Task Force and other agencies. Silva called Meeks "one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area." Meeks's bail was raised from $900,000 to $1 million at his arraignment Friday afternoon, according to the Stockton P.D. Facebook page.