09.02.05


Flickr Helps Identify Flasher

By Jason Lee Miller

This story about how a woman used her camera phone to photograph a subway sex offender and post it on Yahoo!'s photoblogging service Flickr, which led police to identifying him is gross. We'll let you make your own jokes as every sentence you come across is (accidentally) ripe with innuendo. Hope you enjoy yourself.

It all began on an uptown Manhattan R train on a late August afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old web developer Thao Nguyen was sitting opposite a blond-haired man in a black shirt and blue jeans.

"He kept staring at me," she told the New York Daily News. "I could feel his eyes on me. I wanted to avoid eye contact so I looked away, but I could see his reflection in the window."

And then, he did something quite lewd. Quick thinking Nguyen took his picture with her Samsung P777 camera phone.


"I aimed it and quickly took the shot. As soon as I took it, he zipped up and got off the train."

The next day, after filling out an official complaint, Nguyen posted the picture on Flickr and Craigslist. A slew of bloggers linked to the photo, which soon found itself on the front page of the New York Daily News.

A few days later, after six other victims recognized him, the man was identified as Dan Hoyt, the proprietor of two New York City raw health food restaurants named Quintessence. Acquaintances and patrons of the restaurant verified the identity of the culprit.

Hoyt was arrested in 1994 for lewdness at the same station, which earned a whole 2 days of community service. He'll face a stiffer sentence this time once apprehended. Police said Hoyt agreed to turn himself in, but has since left town.

Search Views rightfully acknowledges the incident as a favorable development for Flickr and services like it.

"This is an awesome story and a great example of someone keeping a cool head in a scary situation. It's also good to see the 'Big Brother' phenomenon (cameras everywhere you look) working out in the average citizen's favor for once, not to mention the street cred this gives to social networks like Flickr -What do you mean they're useless?! they can solve crimes!!"

The photo has since been removed from Flickr and the webpage suggests that interested parties contact friendly_chic407.