A man who took an innocent selfie at Westfield Knox has his image splashed all over Facebook by a mum who thought he took photos of her children
A MAN who innocently took a selfie at Westfield Knox has found himself labelled a creep by people on Facebook.
The man had been in the Target store yesterday and took a selfie near some Star Wars merchandise located in the children’s section.
A Knox woman mistakenly believed he was taking photos of her children and took her complaint to security before snapping a picture of the man and then sharing it on her Facebook page.
Her post was shared several hundred times.
However inquires to Knox Police by the Leader revealed that the alleged incident was a misunderstanding and the man had been wrongly labelled a “creep” and a “pedo” by Facebook users.
LATEST:MELBOURNE MEN FEEL UNDER SIEGE
SUSIE O’BRIEN:NOT EVERY MAN WITH A CAMERA IS A PAEDOPHILE
Think before you share...police are urging Knox Facebookers to stop circulating a photo of a bloke outside Target at...
Posted by Knox Leader on Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Facebookers responded swiftly to a post from Knox Leader to tell them the man was innocent, when it was shared more than 400 times in an hour.
“Lesson learnt. Deleted straight away. Apologies to the man himself,” wrote one woman.
Another woman wrote: “and this is how people are wrongly accused and get a label for something they genuinely haven’t done …”.
Police said the man contacted them after he became aware of the post, to clear his name and explain the circumstances around his selfie.
Detective Acting Inspector Allan Price said it was a timely reminder of the perils of social media.
“We would encourage anyone in a similar situation to contact police and report the matter as opposed to turning to social media,” he said.
“Members of the public must not believe everything they read on personal social media pages and refer to reliable sources for their information such as the Victoria Police Facebook page or Victoria Police News.”