Brett Banter

If movies are to be believed -- and why not -- the San Francisco Police Department has long been staffed by shoot first, offer a threat or two, maybe ask questions, then shoot some more and maybe a high-speed chase to finish the day cops. Hell, look at Dirty Harry and Bullitt.

However, that apparently isn't the case in reality -- at least for a man who had several items stolen from his apartment during a move in May. One item was a bottle of gin that is likely long gone, but the other was a laptop equipped with a camera. The victim was able to access the computer remotely and get pictures of the thief or in the interest of fairness a guy who now had the computer. But SanFran police didn't want to help.

So the victim went to the Interwebs starting a blog called "This guy has my Macbook" and blastid the information all over social media. Funny thing happened. People helped track down the potential crook for him. Funnier thing, the media picked up on it. Even funnier, the SanFran police got interested and decided to arrest the guy.

So, may be Big Brother hanging around is a good thing? And where's Dirty Harry when you need him?