Police suspect that social media networks Facebook and Twitter are being used to execute flash robs.
It is known that social media networks are used to plan flash mobs, when a group of people meet at a specific time and place to dance. Generally speaking, crimes are not committed during the flash mob. A few people will tape the mob in action and the footage is uploaded to YouTube.
A flash rob occurs when a group of people meet at a specific store in order to rob it.
The mob doesn’t use violence or even speak to the customers or store employees. The mob’s sheer numbers and swarming effect is enough to overwhelm and confuse the staff. Timing is also of the essence, as flash robs are in and out of the store in under a minute.
There is no intentional YouTube video, however, store security cameras have caught several flash robs and authorities are scouring through the footage for identifiable images.
The very tool the crooks used to orchestrate the crime is also the tool that could do them in, if they’re caught. Facebook and Twitter messages and postings can be retrieved or recalled on the web.
By the time the police are phoned, the crowd is gone, and so are the goods.
There was a rash of flash robs earlier this summer in Chicago, where mobs targeted Filene’s Basement, Express, and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Earlier this week, a flash rob targeted a Georgetown Victoria’s Secret store.
Flash robs have also struck in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Philadelphia.
Video: DuPont Circle Corridor (Washington DC), $20,000 worth of merchandise stolen. Says the DuPont Circle worker, “Group leisurely looked for their size until a large group of them ran out of the store. Mobs take what they want and leave.”
Even worse, Greensboro reporters have uncovered weekly flash mob beatings. “Hundreds of young people descended upon this area…you couldn’t get out of the swarm of the people.”
Police have responded to these incidents by monitoring social media sites and subsequently making arrests. Police Chief Garry McCarthy said, “we’re not going to let it go.”
