As Suffolk police close in on Craig 'Lazie' Lynch—who escaped from prison in September and is now taunting the cops on Facebook—Lazie battles a temperamental public and inspires imitators. Plus: Another inmate absconds from his prison.

When we last saw him, the fugitive was sharing photos of his Christmas dinner for 7300 fans. Lazie's fan base has since sextupled to 42,400 and his every status update draws thousands of reader comments. British authorities have responded, apparently, by seizing his assets.

Police have just towed two of my vehicles away on trucks and ransacked my business. They think it is going to cripple me, the fools. I was going to hand myself in 15 Jan, well not now cunts.

Facebook, now in cahoots with the cops, reportedly shut down Lazie's personal profile, effectively preventing him from operating his fan page for a couple days. In the interim, Lazie buddy Nas Nasir took over, relaying messages on the fugitive's welfare and hosting a fan art contest, the winner of which was a monochromic Photoshop rendering of Lazie's "FUCK THE SYSTEM" profile photo, as the pose is now known. The winning image was permitted to be Lazie's main fan page pic for a day or so.

When Lazie made his dramatic return January 3, he and Nas lamented their growing backlash, which includes a guy who thinks Lazie is "a fucking benifit sponger," one who proposes "LYNCH lynch," and another who calls himself "Craig 'Headeater' Lynch" and photoshopped a big ugly penis [NSFW] atop Lazie's infamous Christmas dinner photo.

In fact, Lazie's "Personal Information" has been altered to address a nasty rumor:

This is for the HATERS out there who are starting up some fire with the fans about me hitting or robbing an old lady get a fuckin life you worthless shits, i got respects and havent touched or robbed no old lady. now move on and find a life ya shits

Among the more inspired Lazie fan pages is Sightings of Craig 'Lazie' Lynch, ostensibly dedicated to crowdsourcing Lazie's arrest, but actually more of a fan fiction forum:

Lazie's haters cite justice, tax dollars, and the creation of poor role models as reasons for hoping the fugitive gets caught. The escape of a second convict from Lazie's Suffolk prison has Great Britain on red alert for Fugitive 2.0, though international drug mule Omar Kabba-Diakite has yet to show up online. If he does, may I suggest: the Epicurious Recipe-Share Fugitive. And finally, here's a guy who turned his Facebook profile into an homage to Lazie:

In a private message, Luis Lazie explained his rationale: "Because, although I do not approve of the crimes he has committed, I find it extremely humorous the way he taunts police, and they are clueless to his location."