The last thing I expected to see Tinder used for was a 21st century version of a wanted poster. But that’s exactly what a startup has coopted the dating service for: to catch a hoodlum who’s been robbing BuildZoom’s SOMA headquarters.
David Peterson, the company’s founder, created a Tinder profile for the alleged villain, calling her “Lauren,” with a corresponding photograph captured from the surveillance equipment installed by the company. The reward for identifying the woman in question: $5,000 (email lauren@buildzoom.com with information). The alleged thief has only purloined Apple products to date, and she has not yet been apprehended by the cops.
“I was trying figure out how to get her face in front of all these people and I thought that Tinder has a large user base in San Francisco,” Peterson told me over the phone this morning. “I almost want to send a message about petty crime, that if you break into office buildings you won’t get away with it.”
Peterson’s office has been the victim of three thefts over the summer, along with at least four other startups in the city, according to Peterson’s blog post on the topic. After the initial burglary, the company installed a video surveillance system, and has captured video evidence of the suspected thieves in action.
That footage shows two people, a man and a woman, breaking into the office, bypassing the Doorking/DKS code system — Peterson believes the crooks have obtained a master key that will unlock any such system. “She opened the key box with the master key, and then reprogrammed the door to all fives then broke in,” he said. “It’s a flaw in their system.”
Burglaries are increasing, as are other property crimes, according to the cops. And a police spokesman told the Chron that part of the reason the city is reporting more burglaries is because video surveillance allows organizations to verify that a crime occurred. “In the past, some burglaries may have gone unreported because businesses may not be able to verify missing property was due to a crime or not,” spokesman Gordon Shyy told the paper. “Now with video surveillance, businesses will verify the burglary and call police. We’ve also seen more burglaries where the suspects try to blend into the work place during the day.”
One reason startups may be victimized is because the open-concept design makes thieving easier, according to Fast Company. That’s no comfort to Peterson, though, “I would like my computers back,” he said.
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Images from BuildZoom
