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New York Times' Serious Request For London 'Petty Crime' Stories Backfires

British Twitter users flooded the newspaper with fantastically fake experiences.
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Reporter, HuffPost

The New York Times asked readers on Thursday to share experiences of petty crime in London:

“A surge in violent crime,” the newspaper said in its plea, has left the city’s Metropolitan Police “severely stretched.” The Times said it was seeking readers’ help to “understand how the London police are responding to minor property crimes.”

However, wags on Twitter threw some light on the serious request ― and flooded the Times with all sorts of fantastical tales of woe: 

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