New Zealand Cops Credit Facebook With Arrest

from the dude-mcgruff-just-added-me dept

Police in New Zealand have arrested a would-be thief after putting CCTV photos of him up on Facebook. The criminal genius tried to crack open a pub's safe, but after an hour in a small, enclosed space, he got hot and removed his ski mask -- then later helpfully looked directly at the CCTV camera. Cops in the town of Queenstown put the image up on their two-month-old Facebook page, and a day later, he was identified. Media worldwide have picked up the story, but really, it's nothing more than some smarts on the part of the police to go where people are. In times gone by, getting images like this in the local paper, or on the Crimestoppers segment of the local TV news were about the best way to try and get witnesses or identify criminals. Facebook and other social-networking sites now offer huge audiences (or potential witness pools), particularly among young people, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see cops set up shop there.

Filed Under: arrests, new zealand, wanted
Companies: facebook