Gadgetell has a great story about a car theft and the community forum that helped get it back.

Cyber crime often makes the news, but this time a “Cyber Village” was credited as the crime fighters. The cast of characters (other than the thief) were all members of the beyond.ca car enthusiast’s forum. You see, the car was stolen the old fashioned way but was recovered within 48 hours by cyber tracking. Even without a GPS tracker on board the crime was solved by people that shared a love both for cars and for the internet. Fortunately there were cyber friends available to answer Mr. Ironsides desperate plea.

While I have participated in many forums, this makes me wonder how helpful they would be to me if a similar situation arose. I have to admit though, I am hear more and more about how YouTube, Facebook, and forums are helping solve crimes, find people, and make this world a better place, undoing one bad thing at a time.

Would your cyber friends have your back? Stuff like this definitely makes me want to be even more active in some of the online communities I am in. You never know when you will need their collective resources, or when they will need yours.