Instead of a conventional booking photograph, the new image showed him wearing gold-rimmed sunglasses and a plaid or patterned jacket while sitting inside a vehicle.
It looked more like a photograph selected for a social-media profile than an image intended to help police locate a wanted person.
Along with it came the now-famous message:
“Here is a better photo that one is terrible.”
Police could have kept the exchange private.
Instead, they embraced the absurdity of the situation.
The Lima Police Department shared Pugh's chosen photograph and explained that it had been supplied by Pugh himself.
The department then responded with a line of its own, thanking him for being helpful while adding that officers would appreciate it if he came to speak with them about his charges.
CBS News confirmed the exchange at the time, reporting that police released Pugh's self-selected photograph on their Facebook page after he sent it to them.
Reuters also reported on the incident, describing how Pugh supplied a photograph he considered more flattering after seeing the mugshots police had published.
In other words, the part of the story that sounds most like an internet joke was the part most clearly documented by law enforcement and major news organizations.
Pugh really did send police a better picture of himself while they were trying to find him.
The Internet Took Over
Once the police department shared the exchange publicly, the story had nearly everything required for viral success.
It was easy to understand.
It was visually funny.
It involved police, a wanted man and a selfie.
And most importantly, it reversed what people normally expect someone in Pugh's position to do.
A person who knows authorities are looking for him would ordinarily have a strong incentive to reduce his visibility. Sending law enforcement a clearer and more carefully selected photograph seems to accomplish the exact opposite.
That contradiction made the story irresistible.
The episode was picked up by major media outlets across the United States and internationally. CBS News, ABC News, Reuters and The Washington Post were among the organizations that reported on Pugh's unusual decision.
But the scale of the original social-media reaction can also be documented directly through the police department.
In its 2016 annual report, the Lima Police Department looked back on the incident as one of its most notable social-media moments of the year.
The department wrote that the year had begun with a particularly popular post across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It explained that Pugh had seen his wanted notice, disliked the photograph and privately sent police a selfie they could use instead.
According to the department's annual report, the resulting post went viral and accumulated more than 814,000 views around the world.
For a local police department in a relatively small Ohio city, that was an extraordinary level of exposure.
A routine attempt to locate one man had suddenly become an international human-interest story.
Pugh Was Willing to Talk — Just Not at the Police Station
The story became even stranger when Pugh began talking publicly while he was still being sought.
According to The Washington Post, Pugh called into local classic-rock radio station 104.9 Eagle after the selfie story began spreading online.
The station featured him during its “Idiot of the Day” segment.
Pugh's explanation suggested that his concern about the mugshot wasn't an act invented by social-media users after the fact. He genuinely disliked the way the police photographs made him look.