4chan finds girl who tossed puppies into river (but also makes a mistake)

[depakid]

Bosnian police have tracked down a Bosnian girl who sparked a worldwide manhunt and international outrage after she was seen in a web video throwing half a dozen puppies into a river.

The girl, who appeared to be in her teens, lives in the central town of Bugojno, police spokesman Sefir Barucija was quoted by SRNA news agency as saying, but officers did not plan to reveal her identity publicly as she is under 18.

It is believed the online miscreants of the anonymous messageboard 4chan, as well as animal protection groups, played a significant role in identifying the girl, who was the subject of several Facebook groups that were created to track her down.

Only a week ago members of the website identified a woman who was caught on camera dumping a family's cat in a wheelie bin within 24 hours of the footage being placed online. The British woman, Mary Bale, 44, was placed under police protection after receiving death threats from cat lovers.

In February last year, 4chan users also tracked down two men who appeared in a YouTube video abusing a cat, leading them both to be arrested.

Last week, 4chan users correctly identified the Vrbas River in Bugojno as the scene of the puppy-throwing incident, and identified the person who filmed and published the video.

They then circulated the names and Facebook profiles of two girls who were believed to have been the girl depicted in the clip. At least one, a German girl, was wrongly identified and German police said she received hundreds of calls and even death threats.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/police-find-girl-who-tossed-puppies-into-river-20100906-14wf1.html

[Edweird]

1. Better than Sherlock Holmes.

[flvegan]

2. Sometimes it takes miscreants to catch miscreants.

[realisticphish]

3. this is the problem with 4chan and other internet vigilantes

I think what they can do is amazing, and helpful. It's when they move past the "gathering information" that things get crazy. What idiot posts some girl's contact information on the internet without knowing 100% that its her? Give the info to the local police and give yourself a cookie; don't make death threats

[petronius]

4. I agree. This girl needs to be dealt with by the proper authorities, but there

is a really unsavory aspect to these internet hunts. (I'd bet the vast majority of the motivation is not altruistic public service.)

If a mistake like in this case leads to harm to an innocent person, I'd certainly hope that an equal amount of energy is spent bringing the 'mistake'-maker to justice...

[Hannah Bell]

5. oh good, online vigilantes. tracking cat killers. i have a new assignment for the mod squad.

i happen to know there's a serial killer loose who murderer hundreds of thousands of people in iraq, afghanistan & elsewhere. he looks like this:



could you bring him to justice, boys & girls?