YouTube burglary suspects nabbed
October 31, 2008 at 11:25 am by Scott Henry in NewsThe Internets can be an effective crime-fighting tool for those who can’t wait for John Walsh to call.
On Monday, Dan and Alyssa Kopp of Grant Park were victims of a break-in that cost them their flat-screen TV, a laptop and a digital camera. However, their home security camera had caught the entire burglary on video, showing the three thieves and their SUV in high definition.
They posted the video to YouTube on Tuesday, alerted some friends and within a few hours they’d received calls from us, the AJC and several TV news crews. By 5 p.m., the video of the smash-and-grab burglary had been watched by more than 5,000 people, some of whom posted tips.
On Thursday, according to the AJC, police acting on one such tip raided a house in South DeKalb, where they found eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptop computers and several digital cameras. Six suspects, all in their 20s, were arrested.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:21 am
[...] Grant Park and East Atlanta caught their break-ins on camera. Two days after the videos went viral, six suspects believed to be involved in at least one of the burglaries were arrested — and police recovered [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
[...] “People should know they can make a lot more money turning in their buddies anonymously than they could ever get knocking over a restaurant or stealing flat-screen TVs,” says Smith, whose district includes The Standard, as well as the sites of several other recent murders – in addition to numerous victims of a flat-screen theft ring. [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am
[...] emergence since February, or don’t remember the Grant Park burglary suspects caught last year after they showed up on YouTube, the ABC piece is a good-n-quick primer showing how neighborhood watch-style activities are [...]
August 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
[...] by tips from video-viewers, police raided a house in nearby East Lake a few days later, nabbing six suspects and retrieving eight stolen flat-screen [...]