Social Media Solves $60 Theft at McDonald’s

Texarkana, Texas Police used social media to solve a recent theft case in which money was stolen from a McDonalds employee’s wallet last week.

Since posting the story on its Facebook page last Friday afternoon, the Texarkana, Texas Police Department said its post about a woman taking money from a purse left on a counter at a Texarkana fast food restaurant has been shared more than 2,000 times and viewed by 130,000 people. The woman who took the money resides in Dallas and has agreed to buy a money order and return the funds, according to police.On March 15, a McDonald’s employee went on break and accidentally left her purse on the counter by the register. Shortly afterwards, two women walked up to the counter with several children to place an order. One of the women saw the purse there and removed a wallet from it. Police say she took $60 from the wallet and then put the wallet back in the purse.

It was only after the employee realized later that her money was missing and employees reviewed the surveillance video that they found out what happened. They immediately reported the theft to the police department.

It was later learned that the suspect lives in Dallas and was only in Texarkana for the day to visit someone.

After she saw her picture on Facebook, she contacted the McDonald’s restaurant and offered to return the money to the employee, police said.

“Because the suspect lived in Dallas and was presumably in Texarkana for only a day, it is unlikely that we would have ever been able to identify this woman – let alone help the victim get her money back – without social media. Traditional law enforcement methods would have never worked in this case. We are very grateful for everyone who took the time to view and share the post,” said Shawn Vaughn, who manages the department’s social media efforts.