Facebook to the rescue | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

When Wade Coneybeer walked into his kitchen he found a 13-year-old female intruder, who was working with a male accomplice outside.

Nothing was taken but it was after that incident five months ago that Mr Coneybeer, ironically a monitoring station manager for security firm Alarm Watch, started the Facebook page "Watch out for Wanganui burglars".

More public service announcement than vigilante crusade, the page is updated with weekly burglary statistics, including the number of burglaries reported and which streets they occurred in, taken from the Neighbourhood Support newsletter.

Mr Coneybeer also posts other stories and items about crime that might be of interest.

Despite his job, the page was not a marketing tactic and his workplace was not even mentioned, he said.

Unfortunately, Mr Coneybeer himself later became a statistic when he woke up on Christmas morning to find he had been burgled.

He was home at the time so the alarm had not been turned on, he said.

On Monday last week, the security camera he'd had installed following the Christmas burglary was stolen from the outside of his house.

But visitors to the Facebook page have come to the rescue.

The burglar's face was caught on his security footage and he was able to post screenshots on the page.

Within half an hour Mr Coneybeer had a name that kept recurring, which he has passed on to police. There had been no charges laid yet.

Posting the images and a copy of the security footage online tripled the number of followers of the page, and Mr Coneybeer was hopeful it would continue to grow.

"People do need to be aware of what's going on in their neighbourhood," he said.

Whanganui police acting Senior Sergeant Andrew McDonald said that, while he would like to make it clear Mr Coneybeer's Facebook page was not police-sponsored, they did support initiatives that led to the prevention of crime.

Mr Coneybeer's page had a lot of current information about burglaries and where they were happening and, if someone reading the site took steps to prevent themselves and their neighbours from becoming victims of a crime, that was a good thing and the page had done a good job.

"Preventing crime is everybody's responsibility and, if we all do our bit, then Wanganui Victim battles

will be an even safer and more pleasurable place to live."

Mr McDonald said it would be nice to see some crime prevention advice posted on the page as well, and there was a lot of information and safety tips on the police website, www.police.govt.nz.

Anyone with information about something they read on the website, is asked to call police or the Crimestoppers hotline.

Whanganui police (06) 349 0600, Crimestoppers, 0800 555 111.