Manama: A Saudi man was able to recover his stolen car thanks to a tweet he posted two weeks earlier.
Saleh Al Shammari, from the northern city of Rafha near the border with Iraq, left his car with the engine running as he entered a shop in the capital Riyadh.
“I reported the theft of my car to the police who took down all the information and subsequently launched their regular procedures to try to locate it,” Al Shammari said. “As they could not find it, I decided to report the theft on my Twitter account. I gave a description of the car, including the number plate, and included my mobile number,” he said in remarks published by local news site Sabq on Sunday.
A few days later, he received a phone call.
“A policeman called me and told me that he had read my tweet. He said that he was standing in a neighbourhood in Riyadh next to a car that resembled the one I described on the microblog. He said that he could not confirm it was my car because it had no number plate, so I urged him to wait for some time until a relative who lived in Riyadh could join him at the site,” Al Shammari said.
The relative confirmed that the car belonged to Al Shammari, and police patrols and an investigation team were called in for the probe.
“Once all the legal procedures were done, my relative had the car delivered to me here in Rafha. I checked it and discovered that the thief took with him two mobile phones that were on the back seat. He did not tamper with the car or misuse it in any way. It was in good shape, and only the number plates were missing,” he said.
Al Shammari who never thought that his stolen car could be one tweet away was grateful to the policeman.
“The policeman helped me locate my car even though he was not on duty at the time and did not have a formal notification about the theft. I have decided to offer him 10,000 riyals (Dh9,793) as a reward in appreciation of his efforts,” he said.
Online users were quick to praise the policeman for locating the stolen car and calling its owner, saying that he richly deserved good prayers and the financial reward. However, they all criticised Al Shimmari for leaving his car with the engine running, saying that it was an open invitation to theft.
