UK Police Department Twitter Accounts Offer FREE iPads... With A Catch

from the please-tell-me-someone-fell-for-this dept

Normally, if someone were to offer you a FREE iPad or the like unsolicited via the interweb, you'd either be a) reasonably suspicious or b) consulting various anti-malware forums in hopes of regaining control of your computer/Facebook account/credit history. But what if that offer were to come from a more respectable source -- say, an official police Twitter account? If you answered "b" then you're probably taking stock of your life and wondering if leading a life of crime is really for you.

Police in Leicester did exactly that, tweeting out this tantalizing offer to the public a few days ago.

Leicester Police @CityCentreLPU

Not a scam: If you’ve committed a burglary in the #Leicester area within the last week - come to our #police station & claim a FREE iPad.

6 Jan 13

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"Not a scam: If you've committed a burglary in the #Leicester area within the last week - come to our #police station & claim a FREE iPad."

While it's doubtful this police department snagged any criminals with this playful tweet (although I'm holding out hope that it will), it did manage to catch that attention of another police department, who accused the Leicester police of tweet theft.

Solihull Police @SolihullPolice

.@CityCentreLPU – we need to talk to you about a tweet theft earlier today, “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your....

6 Jan 13

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.@CityCentreLPU – we need to talk to you about a tweet theft earlier today, “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your....

The Solihull Police had apparently made the same offer to gullible criminals earlier that day, but had only received 18 retweets as compared to the 4,000 received by Leicester's purloined tweet. An apology was extended and both police departments went back to work, providing a mixture of the useful and the comical, with Solihull PD helping reunite lost cannabis with its owner and the Leicester Police performing field sobriety tests via Twitter.

I know we tend to focus on the negative side of the law enforcement community so it's nice to see little exchanges like this coming from official channels. It goes a long way towards humanizing these two departments, keeping these accounts from turning into faceless department bullhorns dispensing nothing but blotter activity and talking points.