Burglary Ring Used Facebook Places To Find Targets

Kilrah_il writes "A burglary ring was caught in Nashua, NH due to the vigilance of an off-duty police officer. The group is credited with 50 acts of burglary, the targets chosen because they posted their absence from home on the Internet. '"Be careful of what you post on these social networking sites," said Capt. Ron Dickerson. "We know for a fact that some of these players, some of these criminals, were looking on these sites and identifying their targets through these social networking sites."' Well, I guess the prophecies came true."

Comments

Re:Nothing new

[mickwd]

And Google Street View's a gift for casing the joint - checking houses without burglar alarms, or with old/cheap ones, checking access and escape routes, etc - with no suspicion whatsoever, and no chance of a neighbour being able to remember someone acting a bit strangely a few days before a burglary took place.

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

and mind your privacy settings regarding "Everyone."

Silver Lining

[causality]

But now, thanks to Places and the idiots that use it, burgling is easier than ever!

There is a silver lining to that cloud. The more criminals are tempted to go after those who actively make themselves an easy target, the more likely it is that those with a bit of sense will be left alone. This means you now have more control than ever over whether this will happen to you. Choice is good.