Internet Community Catches a Car Thief 169
COredneck sends us a NYTimes story (registration may be required) about an Internet community solving a crime in less than 48 hours. An auto dealer in Calgary lends a car for a test drive — a 1991 Nissan Skyline GT-R. The test driver and another person don't return the car. The dealer then files a police report, but also posts a message about the stolen car on Beyond.ca, an automotive fan board. Many people who read the board keep their eyes out and find the car. They also use Facebook to find the suspect and his high school; and they use Google Maps to pinpoint the thief's location. They film the collar and post the video on Beyond.ca. The dealer says, "This guy has worldwide recognition for being a car thief for the rest of his life. The Internet is not going away."
Re:Wrong guy... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Good that the guy was caught... (Score:5, Informative)
The term "vigilante" has been misused a few times in this thread, so either bunches of people haven't RTFA, or people aren't clear on the definition of vigilantism. This isn't a case of vigilantism as per the dictionary definition because it was the police that arrested the guy and the government who will try and (maybe) punish him.
Vigilantism is when "a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement" -New Oxford American Dictionary
All the Beyond.ca guys did was identify the thief. The actual police have done all of the enforcement, if you'd like, here's a video to confirm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T-kZ7pk1NU [youtube.com]
Re:Good that the guy was caught... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Yeah for this example at least (Score:3, Informative)
It's reasonably easy to import cars into canada once they are 15 years old. That's why this was an R32 and not the newer R34 which has been the star of a few famous western movies
In the US the rule is 25 years.
Re:poor dealer practice (Score:3, Informative)
As for driving without being accompanied by someone from the dealership; it's actually pretty typical in Canada, at least everywhere I've been.
Sure, if your young and trying to test drive a fancy car they might insist on accompanying you, but they typically only do that if they think you can't be trusted for 5 seconds to not do something stupid. If you find the original story in this case, they had previously taken the car out with someone else, they stole it the second time they took it for a spin. Somebody comes back to check out a car after a test drive they are generally pretty interested in the vehicle, and I would expect not stupid enough to think they won't be recognized.
As well, they provided fake information when they borrowed the car.
All that said; he's an interesting circumstance for you:
I went to a local dealership to buy a new car, just looked it over. Came back a few days later and decided to test drive the car. We (girlfriend and I) took it for a spin on a Saturday, came back a little while later and told the sales guy I wanted to buy it. We start the process and it turns out it was about 10-15 minutes too late in the day to process the credit check. Sales guy tells me I can take the car for the weekend and we can finish up the sale on Monday. No photocopy of my license was taken, he had merely glanced at the license to verify I had one.
An hour later we stopped off to rent a movie and the rental place did a more thorough job of verifying who I was. So yeah, easier to steal a 30K vehicle than a $15 DVD.
Re:Wrong guy... (Score:5, Informative)
They decide to post pictures because in the original description, the owner of the right-hand drive GTR (a very rare car in Canada) said that one of the thieft hand had two of its fingers cut off. So what happened was that one of the members, when spotted a similar GTR, flashed the 'rocker' hand-sign and the thief did the same, showing his hand which completely matched the owner's description.
And actually they did contact the police from the beginning, but the police only did show up in time the 2nd time and they BOX in the car.
Re:Wrong guy... (Score:5, Informative)
1. The person who let him "test drive" it remembered the guy was missing fingers. And after the arrest, he was identified as the person who went on the test drive. He even had a fake id that they let them photocopy.
2. The person photoed driving the car the day after it was stolen was missing fingers.
3. The person who photoed him told him he knew that he stole the car. And instead of talking to him about it, he recklessly takes off in a blaze of glory eluding them.
4. The night before he was arrested, he sprayed mud all over the back of the car, so that the license plate (dealer plate) would not be easily recognized.
This is an open and shut case. It's not even close to "mistaken identity".
Re:Good that the guy was caught... (Score:3, Informative)
I don't agree with this - vigilantism is concerned with extra-judicial punishment, not apprehension or even arrest. You have a right to catch a criminal and hand him over to police, although yes, you have to stay within the law yourself.
The police are not the only one's who can uphold the law - rather they're a government agency set up to assist in doing so; the law in many countries still makes explicit provision for a citizen's arrest [wikipedia.org].
Re:Poor guy (Score:2, Informative)