The Evansville Police Department continues to partner with the community by the sharing of lead information on crimes through social media such as the Department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as with radio and television broadcasters and print newspaper media.
A recent example is a case where a rare vintage bicycle was stolen by a fraud scheme.
On April 27th the owner of The Antique Market located at 211 Southeast 4th Street accepted a check in payment for a mint condition vintage 1957 Schwinn bicycle worth about $2000. The check was determined to be a fake but the bike and suspect were long gone by then. The Evansville Police Department obtained surveillance imaging of the suspect cashing another check at a local bank and published the pictures to the Department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. The information was also put out to the media. Local broadcast news media picked up the story and aired the suspect images and also an example picture of the same year and model bicycle in order to enlist the help of the community in solving the crime. Leads immediately began to come in and it wasn’t long until the suspect and an accomplice were positively identified and the bicycle tracked down and returned to the owner.
This case illustrates the effectiveness of police partnering with the community by use of social media as well as news media to solve crimes and improve the quality of life for all members of the community.
