PENTICTON, B.C. — Penticton residents say they don’t tolerate crime happening in their community. In fact, many of them want a hand in helping to identify culprits. A Facebook group called “Penticton Shoplifters and Thieves – EXPOSED” has over 2,000 members, and users post and respond daily.
“The world is a different place than it was a long time ago,” says Leigh Follestad, group creator. “If you’re caught on video doing something wrong, there’s a good chance you’d end up on Facebook and have everyone in town know about it.”
Follestad has had success of his own finding people who have stolen from his store. So he hoped the same formula would work in capturing criminals in the community.
He says the group has been able to identify shoplifters and graffiti taggers, and address theft issues.
The site has helped Nadine Remington, who posted a photo of her son’s stolen bike.
“Within 30 minutes, some kind person posted back and said ‘Hey, I saw that bike on Orchard and Wade, just looking abandoned,’ and I jumped in the car, drove around and sure enough, there was my son’s bike,” recalls Remington.
She frequently checks the site, saying she doesn’t know the users personally, but believe they all have a common goal.
“It’s not vigilantism, it’s neighbours helping neighbours. I don’t blame the police, they just don’t have the resources to keep up with everything going on in town.”
Penticton RCMP acknowledge that the Facebook group have provided some helpful tips.
“This Facebook page is another tool, like Crime Stoppers, to get information from the public to assist us in apprehending these individuals,” says Sgt. Rick Dellebuur.
But he warns that publicly-shared surveillance videos or photos may cause people to falsely identify individuals.
Follestad says the group aims to be part of the solution and to stop the problem before it even begins.
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