The social media accounts of a man who fled the state after being released from prison have lead to his arrest — for a second time — according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
Steven Kunes, 59, formerly of Montecito, was released from Wasco State Prison on June 8, 2015, according to Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Kelly Hoover.
Kunes failed to report to local probation and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Law enforcement has been actively searching for Kunes for the past six months, and his social media information indicated he had fled California and returned to Pennsylvania, where his parents reside, Hoover said.
Sheriff’s detectives also became aware of a newspaper article in Bucks County, Pennsylvani, that reported Kunes had falsely claimed to be developing a Netflix series with numerous movie stars, Hoover said.
The reported scam was similar to a 2011 case in Santa Barbara County in which Kunes was convicted of theft by false pretense when he accepted funds for a Hollywood movie project that did not exist, Hoover said.
He was arrested last Friday while picking up a package from a post office box location, and the Newton Police Department, Bucks County Sheriff’s Office and the Middletown Township Police Department in Pennsylvania were all involved in locating and arresting Kunes.
Kunes has been the center of several local cases, and was sentenced in 2012 for for second-degree commercial burglary, intent to commit larceny and any felony, and felony counts after allegedly trying to pass bad checks at Montecito Bank & Trust.
Noozhawk reported at the time that he also admitted special allegations for previously going to prison for forgery and grand theft. He had been implicated in forgeries at both Business First Bank and Montecito Bank & Trust.
In 2012, Kunes cut off his electronic monitoring device and mailed it to a custody deputy at the Santa Barbara County Jail.
Kunes also submitted plagiarized works to several local publications, including Noozhawk, that were taken from Newsweek columnists.
The essays were removed from the site after two were discovered to be fraudulent.
Hoover pointed out that the recent arrest is the second time social media has played a part in arresting Kunes.
After the Sheriff’s Office posted his booking photo on the department Facebook page, a Carpinteria resident saw Kunes at a restaurant and contacted the Sheriff’s Office, who responded and arrested Kunes.
Kunes is currently at the Bucks County Jail in Pennsylvania awaiting extradition to Santa Barbara County to face his charges.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.