Operated by the Seattle Police Department, the Twitter handle @getyourcarback shares information about recently stolen cars, including license plates, as a way for the community to identify those cars and call 911 when they do. Last week, the Seattle Weekly poo-pooed the Seattle Police’s idea of using Twitter to help folks reclaim their stolen vehicles, saying, “Don’t hold your breath.”
Seattle Police 1, Seattle Weekly 0. That’s because it actually worked and the car in question was found in Fremont.
The Seattle Police twitter account getyourcarback has yielded its first stolen car recovery. On December 14th at 7:23 p.m. the Seattle Police 911 Center received a telephone call from a woman who indicated that a Honda Civic she had seen tweeted was in the 1900 block of 2nd Avenue NW. A patrol officer was dispatched to that location and recovered the car and notified the owner.
That sound you hear is thousands of Seattiltes suddenly clicking “Follow” on the Get Your Car Back Twitterfeed.