A ‘social experiment’ that was set up in London caught the moment when police officers realised that they were being live-streamed to millions of TikTok users.
The iPhone used to Livestream the event had been wired up to a battery pack before being placed inside a ‘secure’ box.
The box was then strapped to a lampost in central London with the footage being Livestreamed to a TikTok handle called the ‘LiveLab.’
Viewers were then treated to footage of revellers walking past the iPhone box.
A handwritten note above the black box informed passersby that the camera was on, with a message that read: ‘Say Hello, Live TikTok’.
At some point during the stream, several Metropolitan Police officers ended up standing next to the ‘hidden’ camera.
The officers, who were on foot patrol at the time, initially did not realise that their every move (and word) was being beamed out to a potential audience of billions of people.
After a few moments, one of the officers realised that the box was there and that they had inadvertently become the stars of the show.
The officers arranged for some colleagues to pop down to the location with a pair of bolt croppers so that the box could be taken down before it was ‘escorted’ to a local police station.
The LiveStream lasted for around five hours before the box was removed.
As the officers walked back to the police station, they found the account that was LiveStreaming the footage and started to read the comments which were being left by viewers.
On a later video that was made about the ‘incident’, one TikTok user commented: ‘This was so funny! I commented during the live ‘where’s Liam Neeson, we’ve been taken!’ and they read that out!’
The iPhone and battery pack, believed to be worth around £200, was booked into a police property store in central London where it can be picked up by the lawful owner, should they decide to break cover and retrieve the equipment…
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