The Urban Boutique has turned to Facebook to help solve a recent break and enter at the Thunder Bay store.
Around 1:30 a.m. on March 9, the Memorial Avenue clothing store had its front door smashed in and about $3,000 worth of merchandise stolen.
Store owner and operator Angelo Petta said he immediately put up surveillance videos and photos and pictures of the stolen merchandise on the store’s Facebook page, which has almost 5,000 fans.
“I know the police do their best in solving crimes. We just want to take advantage of the installed fan base we have,” Petta said.
“With all the sharing and the liking and the follow-through and commenting, I’m sure we reached about 50 to 60 per cent of the market share of Facebook users in Thunder Bay. It was really a no-brainer for us to put it onto Facebook to get the velocity going on the word of mouth,” he added.
Story continues after video ...
With the surveillance stills and video and the pictures of the stolen items, Petta said they were able to distribute a complete digital package in a short amount of time that would reach a lot of people.
“It was really a benefit for us to be able to take advantage of not only Facebook but the very large established fan base we have to get the word out,” he said.
The response from the online community has been extremely supportive and has also been humbling, Petta said.
“There have been a lot of people sharing the information on their (Facebook) wall, commenting and very sincere responses from all of our fans.”
The police are investigating the incident.
