The Facebook pressure was too much for the four men caught on camera stealing artwork from the Green Room early Saturday morning.
The Facebook pressure was too much for the four men caught on camera stealing artwork from the Green Room early Saturday morning.
Obviously unaware their actions were being filmed by the 17 surveillance cameras spread throughout the Green Room, the four perpetrators - who probably considered themselves some pretty smooth operators at the time - were filmed scheming and touching the painting for about 45 minutes before a thief wearing a green shirt removes it from the wall and passes it off to a co-conspirator in a derby hat, who then coolly walked out the bar's front door.
Though the missing artwork, a painting by Diane Nowell, was noticed later that morning by Carey McCue, the Jefferson Street bar's art curator, the police weren't called. Instead, a Facebook campaign was launched Wednesday morning in an attempt to ID the four men and retrieve the stolen piece.
Within hours, the comments came rolling in on the Facebook thread, resulting in two of the four thieves being identified. Within 24 hours, the stolen artwork was returned, according to an update posted by McCue this morning.
Click here for pictures of the theft in progress.