Celina 52 Truck Stop divides internet following Flock Safety camera 'arrest'

A bizarre social media post from the infamous Celina 52 Truck Stop has divided the internet after the account claimed an employee used a Flock Safety camera system to identify a woman accused of stealing baby supplies.

In a post published to X, formerly Twitter, in the voice of the truck stop’s management, it read: “Yesterday a Celina 52 Employee noticed an unwed mother acting weird in the store as he monitored her movements. With probable cause, the employee checked her license plate through our Flock System before pursuing and extracting her from her truck.

“It was discovered that she stole Pampers, as well as three cans of formula. Local police were called to the scene to book her on multiple charges. Without Flock, this woman would likely still be on the streets stealing from honest businesses like ours. Thank you for your continued support.”

Alongside the post, they included an AI-generated image of a woman being arrested for stealing the pack of diapers and cans of formula.

This divided viewers, with some taking to social media themselves to condemn the apparent actions of the truck stop management, with one user writing: “Right, because slamming a desperate mom with police charges is more important than resolving the problem with local charities/food banks and women's shelters. You people make me sick.”

And another added: “Is this a parody account? If this is true, and y'all are proud of both Flock and arresting someone for stealing diapers? Thank God I don't live anywhere near Celina truck stop.”

However, there is a reason why readers shouldn’t take the post at face value, as Celina 52 Truck Stop is actually a satirical account rather than a conventional truck stop issuing genuine crime reports.

Posts often include people who work at the real Eco Travel Plaza, which was exposed as the 'real' Celina 52 thanks to internet detectives doing some digging.

What is Flock Safety?

While the truck stop might be satire, the issue surrounding Flock cameras highlighted in their post is very real.

The cameras are used to monitor traffic by photographing passing vehicles and using software to identify the licence plate and vehicle characteristics including the make, colour and type, along with the time and camera location.

According to Flock’s website, the firm does not use facial recognition or collect biometric information.

Instead, the company’s system will capture an image of a vehicle in a particular time and location, but will not continuously track the individual, although, if this same vehicle is photographed by multiple cameras then this could be used to show where the vehicle was heading at different points in time.

Hackers are tearing down Flock cameras

Following growing public outrage over the surveillance cameras, hackers have been literally tearing down the cameras from the street and using them to gain access into the device’s Android system where they have been able to find unencrypted data.

They have also been exposing information on how cars are being tracked by the cameras and even sharing details on how others can take them down.

According to WIRED, one hacker, who is from a collective known as stegan0gram, said: “Why just destroy them when we can reverse engineer them and find the secrets of those spying on us?

“We liberated hardware in the field, disarmed them, and proceeded with reverse engineering of the cameras and associated solar equipment.”