Thief Posts His Photo To Facebook Victim's Account

An anonymous reader writes "Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher discovered his house had been burgled; money, a winter coat, an iPod and his son's laptop were stolen. Imagine his surprise when Facebook friends of his 15-year-old son reported that a photo of the apparent thief, wearing Fisher's coat and holding a wad of notes, had been uploaded to his son's Facebook account. How addicted do you have to be to a social network to post a status update and upload your photo *while* you're burgling someone's house?"

Comments

Re:Just more extreme

[sodul]

My brother got several thousand euros worth of specialized equipment stolen from his work vehicle. The thief posted the equipment for sale online much lower than the going value. We found his name and address and told the cops. They know him as a drug addict who sells stolen goods ... nothing. The police told my brother that the best he could do was to show up at a meeting with the burglar (remember a hardcore drug addict), confront him and then call 911 (or local equivalent) after confirming the serial numbers match. French police.

Re:a liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mug

[TheCarp]

I happen to disagree entirely.

Not because I feel much sympathy for thieves... believe it or not, I have been robbed. In fact, some barbarian got into my car, went through the glove box, and stole my GPS, just last weekend. Not to mention the time my old apartment got broken into and laptop stolen, or the few other times I have been taken, robbed, etc. Hell about 10 years ago I was a drug dealer for all of 2 weeks.... got shut down and put out of business by a box that was supposed to be filled with weed, and instead ended up being the most expensive pack of marshmallows that I ever bought.

So why would I not be in favor of just killing them? Well... I have a friend who used to be a thief. He stole cars, he did all manner of bad things. What does he do now? Well... he spent the past 15 years turning his life around. He has been working as a professional Carpenter for almost 8 years before an unfortunate accident with a saw sent him home and back to school. (and showed him and all our friends that insurance companies can be bigger crooks than outright thieves.... seriously... the games they play are downright abusive)

People grow up, people change. Killing one doesn't stop the next one, its not even a particularly good deterrent (actually severity of punishment is easy to show is not a good deterrent) on the other hand, increasing the likelyhood of being caught, even with relatively minor punishment, turns out to be a far more effective deterrent. (lojack is more effective, for example, than long jail sentences at reducing theft rates).

So.... in the end, harsh punishments are really just petty attempts to make the victim FEEL better. They don't really lessen crime rates. Which makes them perfect for justification of increasing budgets.... a bureaucratic wet dream... an ineffective and expensive remedy that people like, and keep coming back for.... it is political crack.

-Steve

Re:a liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mug

[TheCarp]

Also.... I really don't feel that ALL of the petty crimes and dangers of modern American life add up to even a fraction of the cost to society as the crimes pushed by central governments.

By people who insist on raising armys and turning other peoples homes into war zones. You want to talk about a paultry 20,000 murders, 40,000 auto accidents... things that are mostly random and unplanned, or the work of impulsive kids.

Central governments kill hundreds of thousands with their wars, rob from millions. You know how big the Social Security Trust Fund is? I will tell you what, at least the simple theives that have robbed me over the years total maybe 10 grand. The US government has been telling me it wants 6% of my income so it can write IOUs to itself. You really think petty thieves and gangs come CLOSE?

-Steve