Neighborhood solves crime through Facebook

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (NBC NEWS) - Al Chapman says he wasn't a fan of the social connector, Facebook, that was until it helped solve his crime.

Chapman, who is an owner of a moving company, pulled into his Brunswick, Ga., neighborhood Wednesday afternoon to find a big problem.

"I see a big hole in my window, so I say 'what's happened to my truck.' I looked over at the other truck, saw window knocked out of it." Someone smashed windows in not one, but two, of his company's work trucks.

The thief also stole what was inside. "Radar detector, GPS, XM radio was gone."

Chapman called his wife, Mary, right away. "I said you're kidding me." Mary Chapman didn't waste any time. "Don't mess with the Lexington Place housewives."

She and the other wives, who call themselves the Real Housewives of Lexington Place, got to work. While police were dusting for fingerprints, Mary hit Facebook to tell her friends what happened.

"When my wife passed it along to her friend, she passed it to her friend who lives in the neighborhood. She facedbooked it back to my wife," says Al Chapman.

Long story short, Mary told one friend on Facebook, who told another and another.

One neighbor wrote back she thought she saw the suspect and knew where he lived.

The Chapmans then called police. "The officer was on top of her job, but Facebook went straight to the crime and got our criminal," says Al Chapman.

The suspect was an 18-year-old who lived just down the road.

"If it wasn't for Facebook, we would have never known who did this and where stuff was at," says Mary Chapman.

Al, who says he didn't see a need for Facebook before, now has his own page and checks it regularly on his cell phone. "I love Facebook."

Police also found the stolen items and returned them to the Chapmans.