For a moment last week, the investigation into the disappearance of Chandra Levy seemed to be headed for a break. An anonymous tip to the Washington, D.C., police department claimed Levy's body could be found under a slab of concrete in a parking lot at a military base 160 miles away in Fort Lee, Va.

A California-based nonprofit known as WeTIP received the tip on July 29 and passed the information on to police.

The tip looked credible enough to police because of the detail it provided, prompting media organizations to deploy reporters and helicopters to southern Virginia. But the FBI soon dismissed it as a hoax.

Since Levy's disappearance began grabbing the media's attention in May, D.C. police detectives have received 50 to 80 tips a day. With no solid leads in the case, the department has been forced to consider whatever information comes in.

"You're between a rock and a hard place with this stuff, because you don't want to waste your time, but then with some of this information that comes in, you never know which one will help," D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey told the Washington Post earlier this month.

WeTIP founder Bill Brownell observed to CNN that the false tip "could have come from a mentally disturbed person who just likes to use the telephone."

Since 1972, Brownell's group claims to have received roughly 370,000 tips resulting in 14,322 arrests and 7,326 convictions, the recovery of $16 million in stolen property and seizure of $310 million in illegal drugs.

Brownell and his wife Miriam last week told NPR that information provided anonymously to the site and the phone lines leads to roughly 25 arrests a month.

The Web site serves as a conduit through which concerned persons can report crimes to their local police departments without fear of reprisal. It also links successful tippers up with monetary rewards for convictions.

The first WeTIP hotline opened in 1972 with one operator working 40 hours a week and serviced the San Bernardino, Calif., area, and has since grown into a national network that takes tips for a variety of crimes, ranging from arson to welfare fraud.

In an effort to curb bank crime, the California Bankers Association teamed up with WeTip to post stickers and posters of wanted bank robbery and fraud suspects all over the state. In 1978, State Farm Insurance launched a similar campaign to crack down on insurance fraud in California. In 2000, prosecutors in Southern California contracted with WeTIP to display photos of statutory rape suspects on the site, according to CNN.com.

"WeTip has the ability to work with any city, county, district attorney, business, corporation, service club or agency in the United States to target crimes affecting the quality of life in a community, or the bottom line in an industry infected by crime," the Web site states.

Its ultimate goal, according to the Web site, is to "help restore this nation to the simple splendor of the 1950s."

Past Caught on the Web columns