Burglar Logs Into Facebook On Victim's Computer

yet-another-lobbyist writes to mention that Facebook addiction has finally caused real world consequences, at least for one would-be burglar. It seems that 19-year-old Jonathan Parker couldn't stay away from the popular social networking site, even long enough to rob a house. Parker not only stopped mid-robbery to check his Facebook status on the victim's computer, but left it logged in to his account when he left.

Re:This proves the old adage...

[TrippTDF]

SOME criminals are stupid... obviously, you never hear about the smart ones.

Left the Computer?

[ViViDboarder]

So the burglar just left the computer there? You'd think if you were robbing the place you'd just take it with you...

I'm calling shenanigans! Frame-Job!! :P

Re:Did he update his status?

[clone53421]

Yes. You're correct. They should have said he was checking his friends' statuses and/or checking for comments.

What I want to know is ...

[Gravitron 5000]

if was robbing the place, why didn't he take the damn computer?

Re:What I want to know is ...

[pluther]

Probably a tower case.

Most burglars are no professionals. They are just looking for easily-grabbed items that they can fit into their pockets. Any cash laying around, jewelry, mp3 players or other electronic devices, stuff like that. Carrying a computer down the street would be too obvious.

Likewise, people like this are usually crimes of opportunity. Little to no planning would have been involved - this guy is obviously no professional.

Re:just too funny

[PinkyGigglebrain]

Unfortunately he will likely still get a chance to contribute to the decline of the the gene pool when he gets out of jail so he is, again unfortunately, ineligible for a Darwin Award. This time.

This is an extreme example supporting my long standing belief that only stupid criminals get caught, the smart ones end up running mega-corps like M$.

Re:This proves the old adage...

[Archangel Michael]

SOME criminals are stupid... obviously, you never hear about the smart ones.

Sure you do, they are called congressmen and senators.

Re:stupidity

[JustOK]

Sweet place you work at, where anyone can come along and log into your computers and get online.

Re:stupidity

[omeomi]

At a previous job, we fired a cleaning crew because they logged into our computers to check their email while we were out.

We called to tell them why they weren't getting paid or allowed to come back, and the boss said, "they might have pressed some buttons when they were dusting."

We said, "the login we have here is '[e-mail]'; the odds of that being pressed sequentially are 2.7^15 to 1 against."

Why didn't you just lock your screen when you left for the day?

Re:stupidity

[smoker2]

Yeah I run a web server off my browsing machine. But I lock the screen when I go out.

Re:This proves the old adage...

[CityZen]

Sorry, but you're mistaken. It's "politician = criminal", not "politician = smart criminal".
Politicians, just like criminals, can be smart and dumb.
You only hear about the dumb ones. I'm not sure if the smart ones exist.
(We never hear about them.)

Re:stupidity

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd further that by saying most criminals who are caught (and yes, this is most of them) do not rise to the top of the intelligence pool. Who knows how many ultra-smart uncaught criminals are still out there though...

Re:stupidity

[xelah]

Unless US law is very different to English law, having one party to a contract break it doesn't mean the other is automatically allowed to break it in any way they please in response. They might be if it's the right kind of breach, or the contract might say what they can do explicitly, but this doesn't sound to me to be likely to be that kind of breach.

You'd have to be a complete idiot of a cleaning company to sue, though, so I doubt anyone cared.