From Frank Abagnale to Charles Ponzi, history is filled with the tales of notorious men who used their genius to outwit the law and convinced thousands of the innocent, unsuspecting people to part with their precious property and hard-earned money. On the other hand, the list of bizarre petty thieves is equally long, and even more interesting. The recent addition to this list is an anonymous thief from Kensington in Philadelphia who has taken to stealing the ‘1’ and ‘0’ digits from the house numbers in the neighbourhood. Their exploits have won these robbers the title of the ‘Binary Thieves.’
The mysterious thefts started two weeks ago, and the entire neighbourhood is buzzing with the reports of these weird robbery attempts. Nobody is entirely sure why anyone is stealing these specific digits from the home numbers. Some homeowners speculate that these thefts are an attempt to transmit some sort of message. Others reckon the artists might be behind it, planning to use these numbers in any artistic installation.
For now, these are all just theories and the local police is drawing a blank. The thefts occurred over the last two weeks. Surveillance videos reveal the pilferers, casually walking up to the homes in the middle of the night, ripping the numbers off the wall, and walking away nonchalantly.
When Megan Haley noticed the missing ‘0’ in her home number, she checked the recordings of the security cam and saw a young girl walking up to her front door at 1:30 am, snatching away the number, and leave. Megan is offended by the unconcerned aura of the woman:
“She just walked up and took the number without hesitation. I would like to send her the bill for the number when I purchase a new one.”
Later, another surveillance video surfaced, revealing that the binary bandit was not a person, rather a group! A bearded young man was shown ripping off two number ‘1’ digits from the outside the house of Jenna Feldman.
Another homeowner heard drilling noise a few houses away around 4 am. Next morning, numbers from another neighbour’s house were stolen:
“Thank God mine are painted on,” she exclaimed!
The police have urged anyone with the knowledge of these bizarre thefts to come forward and help them. If caught, the binary bandits face charges for theft and criminal trespassing.
