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Twitter Aids In Saving A Carjacking Victim

A man was saved from a carjacking in Johannesburg by his mobile phone and a tweet.

On Saturday evening, as he was driving through Honeydew in north-west Johannesburg, two armed men forced him into the boot of his car at gunpoint.  At this point he sent a text to his girlfriend, who promptly took to Twitter to spread the word beyond contacting authorities, detailing the car and the time of hijack.

This is when user @PigSpotter caught wind read the tweet.  He used his 109,000 followers, including several private security firms to help the cause, a break from the norm of...spotting pigs: alerting people to police roadblocks and speed traps.

One of these firms, K9 Law Enforcement were able to track the carjackers heading towards Kroonstad on the N1, via the victim's active cell phone in the boot.  

After two hours, the getaway was brought to a halt by a police roadblock, and thankfully the victim walked away unharmed.  It's fair enough to say celebratory and congratulatory tweets were in order.

While the network may not have stopped the carjacking persè, with the local bill taking the lead on the penultimate interception, it's always great to see the acts of a proactive community, and this 'stength-in-numbers' of social media maybe a sign of law enforcement tactics to come.

Source: @onebadvillynn (Twitter), @Pigspotter (Twitter)