The binary bandit has only 10 things on their mind: 0s and 1s.
‘Binary bandit’ has been stealing 0s and 1s from Philadelphia homes
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
For those of you still reading after that unbearably awful joke (I’m sorry, I really am), there’s an incredible crime spree going on in Philadelphia that you should know about. Someone — possibly multiple someones — has been stealing 0s and 1s from the address numbers on the front of buildings. The thieves have hit up at least a dozen houses, according to CBS Philly.
It’s a super weird crime. The going theory seems to be that it’s for some sort of performance art or coming installation, though probably there are other, more legal means of acquiring numbers for a purpose like that.
A security camera caught one woman removing a zero from someone's home on Monday night. Another person says their smart camera picked up a man who was removing a number from their building. If you're curious to how it's left the neighborhood, local site Billy Penn has a bunch of photos of the homes with stolen numbers.
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