by KYW's Pat Loeb
Philadelphia police are dealing with a new challenge: teenagers using social media to gather in large groups and commit crimes.
Call it "wilding" for the information age. On Saturday night, as many as 1,000 teenagers gathered at Broad and South Streets, drawn by social networking web sites and texting, and went on a rampage.
Philadelphia police lieutenant Frank Vanore says they surrounded cars and robbed the occupants, stole and crashed a taxi (above), and looted a mini-mart at a Sunoco gas station:
"This is a new dynamic, this social networking and using the Internet and Twitter. And as police, we're going to have to change and adapt and be sure we have our resources ready to be deployed wherever they're needed."
Vanore says police have been scrutinizing the store's surveillance video as they work to catch the perpetrators.
Temple University professor Frank Farley says it was perhaps inevitable that teenagers would use their cyber savvy this way:
"We shouldn't be surprised that kids get together and can organize offline behavior through online use."
Farley says parents must play a role in combating the behavior. In the meantime, police promise beefed up patrols this weekend.
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