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Woman's Facebook Status Update Tips Off Burglars to Her Location

by Caleb Johnson on March 26, 2010 at 03:55 PM

A Virginia woman who left her home for a concert came back to a crime scene, and Facebook might be to blame. According to News Channel 8 in Arlington, Virginia, Keri McMullen claims her status update on the social-networking site tipped off burglars to her whereabouts. Soon after McMullen posted the band, time and location of the concert, and left her house, burglars broke in and stole about $10,000 worth of property in about 13 minutes. Fortunately, McMullen has a video-surveillance system installed inside her home.

Ironically, it was Facebook that helped solve the case, too. One of McMullen's friends watched the burglary video and recognized one of the men in it as one of her nearly 500 Facebook friends (one she hadn't seen in nearly 20 years). McMullen told News Channel 7, "I did not recognize him at first, but after seeing pictures now, it's definitely him." There's no official word on what happened to the criminals, but we can only assume they'll soon be behind bars.

Facebook friends aren't a repository of everyone you've ever met; choose wisely. Don't post your whereabouts on Facebook. Also, it's probably not a good idea to tag your location to tweets, either. We know you want to keep your friends updated on your comings and goings, but at what price? [From: News Channel 8, Via: All Facebook]

Tags: burglary, crime, facebook, robbery, security, SocialNetworking, status update, top, Web

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