From now on, if you are unfortunate enough to have your car stolen in Seattle, the local Police Department [SPD] will post a description of your vehicle on Twitter. Yes, that Twitter. It’s part of a new initiative to cut down on the roughly 3,000 car thefts that occur in the city each year.
The new Twitter account is called, "Get Your Car Back" [http://twitter.com/getyourcarback#], though I’m sure the SPD could have something cooler like, ‘Stolen Vehicle Watch’ or ‘Smile, You’re On Twitter’. The Tweets, which are visible to everyone, look like this:
COLOR:SILVER YR:1993 MAKE:HONDA MODEL:ACCORD BODY:4DR LIC:608YTL ST:WA ***DO NOT MAKE CONTACT CALL 911***
The idea is to get ordinary, average citizens on the streets looking out for stolen vehicles and reporting them to the police so that they can quickly be recovered. Kind of like that reality TV show, The Fugitive, though not as dull. It is also hoped to deter criminals from stealing the cars in the first place.
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