Twitter connecting the Balham community

There's been a lot of 'exciting' and 'scary' stuff going on in Balham this week and most of it has been connected to crime.

Last Saturday 31 July, Balham High Road was under seige by a gang, armed with clubs who went a local drugs den to (I can only imagine) take umbridge with it's occupant.  The occupant became a fugitive and escaped out of a skylight on to the roofs over Balham.  The whole scene was witnessed by residents living in flats under the roofs by Sainsburys and Hildreths St Mews and many locals were tweeting about it. 

By the time the press had arrived, the twitters had the whole story covered!  But in spite of the criminal activity, as the saying goes - every cloud has a silver lining - and tweeters began realising they were neighbours.  @Balham_simon writes "I never realised how exciting local twitter can be".  That night several local people got to know each other through Twitter and that can only be a good thing. 

@theclarencepub was delighted when his 2,000 pound lap top, left in a cab was returned by the cabbie.  We're using twitter to help trace the driver so he can say thankyou!

@housegirlfriend (story below), was scared witless when her son 4 year old became the target of 3 youths on bikes.  She came home and tweeted her anger and frustration.  The responses came flooding in and in spite of the near crime, more locals are now informed and @housegirlfriend is in some small way sounding grateful to Twitter saying "twitters made Balham feel like more of a small community".