By William Coleman
Social media has become one of the biggest entities on the planet and has taken many forms since the early days things like MSN Messenger and MySpace. In today’s world it is very much used to keep people in touch and spread messages. One such message lead to to the recovery and return of a beloved motorhome to its owners.
Having your caravan or motorhome stolen has to be one of the very worst things that can happen. In some cases people do all that they can to keep their vehicles safe yet the criminal still manage to make off with your pride and joy.
If you have a GPS tracker you can sometimes get your leisure vehicle back quite quickly, but in a lot of cases people do not have this tech on board. So where do you turn when this happens? Social media.
This is where this story takes an interesting turn. On Sunday the 15th of this month the owners of a motorhome were left devastated when they found their vehicle missing in North Duffield near Selby. It is believed to have been taken at around 6:30am.
The owners then took to Facebook and quickly shared images and a description of the motorhome in the hopes that the message would spread far enough and someone would spot it.
Fate was on the owners side that day as a local PCSO spotted the image being circulated around social media and decided to keep an eye out and try and locate the missing RV.
One of the most amazing things about this story is just how quickly the message actually spread. Within just a few hours the post on Facebook was shared a staggering 300 times and reached 80,000 people’s timelines.
Following spot of good luck a man from York, having seen the post online, saw the motorhome parked outside a restaurant in Leeds and immediately alerted the police.
Shortly there after the police were able to swoop in and recover the motorhome and return it to the rightful owners.
Speaking with minsterfm.com PSCO Laura Simpson of Selby’s Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “Thanks to the power of Facebook the vehicle was located in just a couple of hours after a member of the public noticed it parked up unattended in Leeds.
I’m pleased to say it was promptly recovered and returned to the owner. Thanks for all the shares guys, you’re brilliant!”
I know there are some out there who are quite opposed to using social media and sites like Facebook have come under a lot of scrutiny over the past year or so. But a case like this where communities come together to help someone is a real way social media should be used.
