Opportunity knocked for Jeremy Meeks in the most unexpected of places.
The then-30-year-old got his modeling start, so to speak, in June 2014 when he was arrested on felony weapons charges and his mug shot snapped by Annie Leibovitz an unwitting member of the Stockton Police Department went viral.
What was so special about his mug shot, you ask?
Nothing other than Meeks posed for it looking how he looks, which to this day is very much how he appeared in the unusually flattering photograph posted to the Stockton PD Facebook page (as a this-suspected-criminal-is-now-in-custody PSA). Then, internet thirst did its thing and a new crush was born.
“I have not seen that many likes for a photo before,” Officer Joseph Silva told the Associated Press of the 68,000-plus seals of approval the newly minted “Hot Felon” (or “Prison Bae,” if you will) attracted in less than 48 hours.
Of course, it didn’t take long for the enthusiasm to be curbed by inconvenient truths, including that his wife of six years Melissa Meeks, the mother of his now-16-year-old son Jeremy Jr., was apparently unamused by the attention being paid to her husband.
