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Patrick Thibodeau

D.C.

True story: How a mugging victim used Twitter to get help

8 comments

TAGS:blogging, mugging, social networking, Twitter, wasington dc
IT TOPICS:Emerging Technology, Mobile & Wireless

I am going to begin this story the way it unfolded, with a Tweet.

Sunday night, around 11 p.m., this arrived on a Twitter account I use to stay in touch with people locally.

@heathermg: Is anyone awake out there? I just got mugged in front of my house and could really use help calling the police.

@heathermg aka Heather Goss is very involved in the Washington DC blogging community. Her activities include working as managing and arts editor at the very popular DCist, a major online news and arts site serving the Washington Metro area.

I RT (retweeted) @heathermg’s note but immediately felt frustration because I didn’t know where she lived or how to get help to her. But some people who saw her initial distress Tweet knew what to do. While that response was under way, a broader discussion emerged.

The concern was that Twitter use had finally jumped the shark if people were Tweeting for help instead of dialing 911. Wrote one:

“huh? getting mugged & she couldn't manage pressing "911 send" but could send out a message on Twitter?

Other Tweets raisied that question. It was an obvious one and I didn’t know the answer.

In some follow-up DMs (direct messages) today, Ms. Goss said her cell phone was stolen by the mugger. She didn't have a landline in her house; just an Internet connectiion. In her house, she could Twitter.

Ms. Goss was robbed but unhurt.

She wrote:

@heathermg I sent the tweet and 3 friends called 911 for me. I never made a call.

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Not a thesis on Twitter, folks.

Submitted by Heather on March 31, 2009 - 5:57 P.M.

Hi. I'm the one who got mugged. I didn't knock on my neighbor's doors because the mugging took place on my doorstep, and what I needed to do at that instant afterwards was get inside, lock the door, and hope he didn't make good on his promise to come right back if my PIN number didn't work. I wasn't trying to make a big story out of using twitter; if you've noticed, my feed is private, not public, and nearly every one of my followers are friends I know in real life, so I felt pretty confident that one of them would be awake and come to my aid asap. (Also, I talked to my closest neighbor today to tell her about the incident; she told me she was having back problems Sunday and was totally knocked out on drugs...so I'm glad I didn't waste time outside banging on her door.)

Anyway, you're obviously welcome to have any opinion you like, but it's also not something I sat down and logically plotted out, I was running inside in a panic, and I did what I did. I wouldn't take it as some thesis I wrote on the amazing uses of twitter.

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Thank you for this comment

Submitted by Patrick Thibodeau on March 31, 2009 - 10:05 P.M.

I was simply trying to relay what I thought was a very positive element of this: how a social network can be used to put someone in touch with a network that can deliver help.

In a hard city, and DC is that, these virtual networks make up for a lot.

So, yes, as you so aptly put it, this should not be turned into some thesis on Twitter, or a discussion on the merits of rousting neighbors versus Tweeting or what is lost by not giving more money to Verizon for a landline.

This story has nothing to do with Twitter. Twitter is just the latest prop for the most important reminder of all: people do care.

Here it was, 11 p.m., Sunday night, and how many people were actually paying attention to Tweets? And yet three calls were made. I found that personally moving, touching but most importantly, affirming and that's what motivated me to write about it.

And that's all this story is about.

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Skype would be a better choice

Submitted by Anonymous on March 31, 2009 - 11:00 A.M.

You can't use it to call 911, but you can still use it to make a call to the police station's standard phone number -- which you can easily find by Googling if you haven't made an entry for it in your address book.

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I happen to be the person

Submitted by Anonymous on March 30, 2009 - 4:08 P.M.

I happen to be the person that tweeted the message “huh? getting mugged & she couldn't manage pressing "911 send" but could send out a message on Twitter?".

And I stand by that message today even though I received a few messages from people saying she was a genious for thinking of Twitter to get help.

Genious? I don't think so. Her first thought when she had been mugged and her cell phone had been stolen was to log on to her computer and send a message on Twitter to all of her followers?

Why wasn't her first thought to knock on th neighbor's door and ask them to call 911? Or do what I was taught back in the day when we didn't have all of this fabulous technology? SCREAM FIRE.

The problem with people today is that no one cares anymore about their fellow man. If you dont feel comfortable knocking on your neighbor's door, then maybe you shouldn't be living in the neighborhood that you live in.

I would take my chances on a neighbor being home rather than a bunch of people on the Internet.

Twitter name Kellisreddoor

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In my neighbourhood you can

Submitted by Thamarberber on March 30, 2009 - 4:31 P.M.

In my neighbourhood you can scream all you want; nobody will react. And the next day/week/month you can expect a complaint. I trust my Internetfriends a whole lot more, as we share hobbies, life stories, and way more than I will ever with my neighbours.

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I happen to be one of the people that called 911

Submitted by IMGoph on March 30, 2009 - 4:30 P.M.

kellisreddoor: your ability to judge others appears to be your strong point, but that's not something that i would brag about. who are you to tell someone who was in need how to go about fulfilling that need?

heather successfully utilized twitter to get the police to quickly come to her aid last night—end of story.

i don't understand why you feel it's necessary to try to find a way to belittle the fact that her ingenuity was able to win the day, as it were. you don't know her personal situation vis-a-vis her neighbors. you don't even know if she has any. why don't you try getting in touch with heather, since you know her twitter name now, and ask her some of these questions yourself. if you're confident asking them to the crowd, i don't see why you wouldn't be confident asking her personally.

your opinion is a valid one, but that doesn't stop it from coming across as holier-than-thou and selfish. the rest of the world might not operate on exactly the same playing field that you do. what works for you isn't going to work for everyone else. the sooner you realize that, the better, i'd wager.

(by the way, it's spelled genius...)

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IMGoph Heather should feel

Submitted by Kellisreddoor on March 30, 2009 - 8:12 P.M.

IMGoph Heather should feel fortunate that she had a friend that was home and online and saw her message on Twitter. My point in all of this is that society today is a sad state of affairs if you can't knock on your neighbors door and ask for help. Computers have taken over in so many ways that a person in need doesn't even feel that she can knock on her neighbor's door and ask for help. When I no longer feel that I can live in a neighborhood that I can feel safe in, I move. Guess that's why I live where I live these days.

I'm sorry that you saw my post as "holier than thou and selfish" (actually instead of critizing my typing you should look up the definition of selfish) I operate in the real world - that is the one that requires me to get out in the real world every so often and know and HELP my fellow man.

If Heather lived in my neighborhood (past or present) she could have knocked on my door, stayed in my house before, during and after the police came. That's my playing field.

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I agree with Kellisreddoor

Submitted by MadWhiteHatter on March 31, 2009 - 11:48 A.M.

Going to my computer is not something I would do even if I were inside of my house and something like this happened. Tweets might be a fast way to share info, but the police cannot be expected to trust them yet as a reliable source of accurate information. Once they do, the wild turkey chases that they could be sent on would grow exponentially.

As an intelligence analyst in the Army at one time, we used mIRC to transmit data over a secure network; but, we never took it as gospel until an actual report was sent. If you use IRC, Twitter, FaceBook, or any other service as gospel, you will most definitely run the risk of RUMINT---Rumor Intelligence.

I am sure that a gas station, a car, or a neighbor would have been better. Opening the door to your house could unintentionally invite the mugger. Get physical people to support and aid you in a situation like this.

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