Police in Flomaton, Alabama sought the public's help identifying a woman whose criminal antics were caught on camera. A Facebook post eventually identified her, but not before the people (and the police department) had a little bit of fun.
The ability to just hop on Facebook and have your crimes solved is one of the perks of small town policing - and Flomaton is a very small town. According to Google, the 2010 census indicated a population of 1,440 people.
The Facebook page that solved this mystery has about 6.6k followers as we write this. That's already a significantly larger number of people than actually live there, but we expect that number to climb even higher thanks to whoever was manning the keys for this post.
An unidentified woman was caught on camera fleeing on/with the victims "stuff" - riding away on a stolen lawnmower that was towing a stolen trailer full of stolen goods. The trailer has a flat tire.
When your town has less people in it than some people's office buildings, and you're posting to a group with six times as many people as the population, you're pretty much guaranteed to solve the mystery.
It's a small town in Alabama - everyone knows everything anyway.
So why not have some fun while you post?
Their Facebook post reads:
"Do you know them? Please Share!!! If you have any information on this subject's identity, please notify us! Help us get our victim's "stuff" back!!!"
"Little facts to provide to you:"
"The Lawnmower she is riding = Reported Stolen from a residence"
"The trailer she is pulling = Reported Stolen from a residence"
"The items in the trailer = Reported Stolen from a residence"
"The Alabama A = Represents the Chief's Favorite Football Team, but is also stolen"
"The person driving the lawnmower = Identity Needed"
The comments are where things really got going, though.
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
Small town sleuths showed up.
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
@FlomatonPoliceDepartment/Facebook
Unsurprisingly, the thief's identity was quickly unmasked.
We can only assume the department has been working on returning the "stuff" back.
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