How we used Tinder to catch the thief robbing startups in SF

tl;dr >We created a Tinder profile using a picture of the woman who broke into our office. This seemed like the easiest way to get her face in front of a few thousand San Francisco residents.

I was hoping for some ingenious use of tinder (like assuming the thief was a tinder user, and right swiping til they found them). Instead, they are simply spamming their "wanted" photo on tinder to get more eyeballs.

Crime is a serious matter. We should take appropriate measures to identify criminals and alert the police. Spamming is not an appropriate measure.

Shinkei2• 12 years ago

I think it's hard to judge so quickly when we could easily consider a sliding scale of importance. If someone steals a pack of gum from the local CVS, I put that much lower on the scale of importance than say an extreme of a child being kidnapped... or in this case, theft of thousands of dollars worth of computers including data, work, etc. We accept that "Amber Alerts" flash on our phones, highways, emergency systems because society has decided that it's important to get a lot of eyeballs. It's a public good. Well Tinder is a private business, and as such they can certainly take down any 'spamming' photo. But I am willing to bet a lot of users--especially justice-minded users--could see this as a potential feature. Every 20-30 pics, a wanted ad is posted and if you contribute to catching them... you get a reward or maybe even some kind of 'good person flair' on Tinder. I'm just throwing ideas out there... but really trying to show you that what you see as just 'spamming' could actually be a huge opportunity both for Tinder users and Tinder itself.

swatow2• 12 years ago

It's pretty clear that this is a misuse of tinder according to its current usage. In some alternate reality or future world when tinder explicitly condones this, then your point would be valid.

I doubt tinder would consider this because the public benefit doesn't outweigh the annoyance to users. If you want to spread the word, you can use Facebook, which is actually better since people share what they think is important, so it's more tuned to people's actual priorities.

devonbleak• 12 years ago

Where's the part where they actually get caught?

jiyannwei3• 12 years ago

We're getting the blog back up. Good coverage is available here if you're interested in the story: http://www.businessinsider.com/burglar-who-targets-silicon-v...

bsder• 12 years ago

Um, a master key, presumably from the factory, was used to break into multiple installations?

I think I would be sending a nice legal letter to the security company for not telling me that such a master key existed or how to disable it. And sending them the bill for replacing their broken security system.

dsl• 12 years ago

I've used Doorking systems to gain entry before. It's not a "master key," just a factory default that you are supposed to change.

If you notice in the video, she has her phone in her hand when she comes in. Most likely because she added herself as a new tenant into the system. If she didn't remove it after she left, her phone number should still be programmed in.

seeingfurther• 12 years ago

I think this has the potential to be a great business model for Tinder.

steven2012• 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure they need to use the term "alleged" until the person is actually convicted.

How we used Tinder to catch the thief robbing startups in SF

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