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Twitter photo helps nab suspected flasher

By the CNN Wire Staff
This is the photo put out on Twitter that helped Boston police arrest a suspect in a flashing incident.
This is the photo put out on Twitter that helped Boston police arrest a suspect in a flashing incident.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • A rider aboard the Boston transit system spotted a man fondling himself
  • He snapped a photo of the man and posted it to his Twitter account
  • Transit police say the photo helped identify the man as a known offender
  • The man was arrested Friday and charged in the incident
RELATED TOPICS
  • Twitter Inc.
  • Technology
  • Boston

See more about this story at CNN affiliate WHDH.

(CNN) -- An alert rider of the Boston area transit system helped nab an alleged flasher by posting a photo of the suspect on Twitter, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.

Rider Nay Khun was riding the train Wednesday afternoon when he spotted the suspect "fidgeting with his crotch area with his zipper open and his penis exposed," according to the MBTA.

Khun immediately posted to his Twitter account a photo of the man, saying "pervert on the 2nd car of the red line ... help me report him."

The man is a known offender, MBTA police told CNN affiliate WHDH.

He was arrested Friday for open and gross lewdness, according to a statement from MBTA police.

MBTA Deputy Police Chief Joseph O'Connor praised Khun's quick thinking in helping identify the suspect.

"He felt that the way he was trying to leverage a police response ... was to use Twitter, and in this case it worked quite successfully," O'Connor said.

But Khun was modest about his role in the arrest, saying -- in a Twitter post, of course -- that "the [MBTA police] are the real heroes here. Swift work by their finest."