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Social Media To The Rescue In Missing Phone Caper

The unidentified man in the selfies.
Tallahassee Police Dept. via Facebook

The Tallahassee Police Department got creative this week after a phone went missing.

A Tallahassean lost a phone recently, but not access to the cloud.  Pictures, or more accurate—selfies, started showing up from the lost phone depicting a young man in a Miami Heat beanie.  So Police Department spokesman David Northway says they put the pictures up on Facebook.

“And we immediately received—almost immediately received—several people telling us they believed they knew who he was,” Northway says.  “We were able to make contact with him by telephone and we have scheduled an interview with him to see what if any connection he has with the case.”

Northway is quick to point out the person in the photos could be an unwitting buyer of the stolen phone.  Police posted the photo Wednesday afternoon, and less than 24 hours later they had tracked down the guy in the selfies.

Nick Evans came to Tallahassee to pursue a masters in communications at Florida State University. He graduated in 2014, but not before picking up an internship at WFSU. While he worked on his degree Nick moved from intern, to part-timer, to full-time reporter. Before moving to Tallahassee, Nick lived in and around the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years. He listens to far too many podcasts and is a die-hard 49ers football fan. When Nick’s not at work he likes to cook, play music and read.