There's An App That Shows You Which Neighborhoods Are 'Sketchy,' And A News Crew Got Robbed While Using It
Oh, the irony.
A Washington D.C. news crew says it was robbed in Petworth, Northwest D.C., while reporting on a controversial app that shows users where "sketchy" neighborhoods. The news crew said the app led them to the location of the shoot.
<span>While the D.C. news crew didn't specifically name the app they were reporting on, it sounds a lot like SketchFactor, </span>an app that was recently featured in Valleywag, Business Insider and other outlets as an app with a racist connotation. "Smiling Young White People Make An App for Avoiding Black Neighborhoods," Valleywag's Sam Biddle wrote.
"<span>We were doing a story on an app that describes ‘sketchy' neighborhoods," WUSA 9 crew member <span>Mola Lenghi told his network on air Friday evening.</span> </span><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/53e79e826da8119807fc3c8a-1200-546/screen-shot-2014-08-10-at-12.29.17-pm.png" border="0" alt="wusa9 news robbed sketchfactor iphone app" style="color: #000000;">"It led us to the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest, and I'm not going to call it a ‘sketchy' neighborhood, but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there — as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed."
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Lenghi showed the van's destroyed lock and says a number of electronics and bags were stolen from the vehicle. <img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53e79eeaeab8ea517fff9035-1200-600/screen-shot-2014-08-10-at-12.29.43-pm.png" border="0" alt="news crew robbed sketchfactor"></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Some of the stolen items were tracked down four hours later to a dumpster when the station's intern used the "Find my iPhone" app. One crew member says he climbed into the dumpster battling rats and a raccoon to get the devices back.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53e79fb36bb3f7975f4e541b-1200-522/screen-shot-2014-08-10-at-12.30.03-pm.png" border="0" alt="taylor wusa9 news">
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Here's the clip, via The Raw Story:
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