Home Burglar Returns To Taunt Couple Via Facebook?

from the remote-logout-time? dept

Mon, Aug 17th 2009 3:40am — Mike Masnick

Over in the UK, there's a story about a home burglar, who stole a laptop among other things, and then used the fact that the latpop was logged into a Facebook account to taunt the victims via one family member's own Facebook account, noting that he was happy with his take (especially the laptop and a Nintendo DS) and that he'd left the TV because it was "rubbish," before noting that he was off to the pawn shop (he wrote "porn shop" but he probably meant the former). He then signed it, "regards, your nighttime burglar." Of course, it makes you wonder if this only makes him easier to catch, as now police have an IP address to look up as well...

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Filed Under: burglar, social networks

30 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 4:54am

"The burglar mocked the home owners by writing they were about to pawn the stolen goods – including a black Toshiba laptop and an i-phone.

They even signed off by writing "regards, your nighttime burglar"."

Get it right, Telegraph.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 5:18am

Read the rest of the report before you tell people to get it right.

The next said: "Listening to music on my new phone feels so good.

"I have the laptop, phones OK but a bit scratched itll do. TV was rubbish so I left it, ds was a bonus. now to the porn (sic) shop I gooo, thankyou Toshiba is my favourite make.
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Chuck (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 5:42am

Re:
iPhone? Why wouldn't it be tracked by now?
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yozoo, 17 Aug 2009 @ 5:55am

stupid kids
A cop once told me "if criminals werent so stupid, we would never catch them. We just dont have time to look very hard for them." - I dont think this particular criminal will be that hard to find.
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Headbhang (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:09am

This reminds me...
This story just reminds me of the Sarah Connor's Chronicles episode I saw yesterday.

The treatment the burglars received from badass Cameron in the end might have been a bit harsh, but after seeing what a jerk this guy was, one can't help to wish that they had tried this on Sarah Connor's house :P
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:09am

an ip address suddenly uniquely identifies one person?
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hegemon13, 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:12am

Re:
I am pretty sure the AC was pointing out the misuse of the pronoun "they." The rest of the article makes no difference. The author used "they" to refer to a singular, gender-unknown burglar, which is a grammatical taboo. "He," "she," "he/she," or just "the burglar," would have been preferable.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:19am

Re:
Nail on the head by hegemon13.
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Bob V (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:20am

Re:
No buit it gives a nice starting point
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:22am

Re:
He never said it uniquely identifies the burglar, just that it might help them track the guy down. Considering that you have date/timestamps on Facebook and you should know the general area that this burglar is in, the IP address could help you figure out if he was using this from a public area. Of course, it might not help at all if he was going through a proxy or something similar. Either way it is essentially giving free evidence to the police.
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Xanthir, FCD (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:22am

Re: Re:
I am pretty sure the AC was pointing out the misuse of the pronoun "they." The rest of the article makes no difference. The author used "they" to refer to a singular, gender-unknown burglar, which is a grammatical taboo. "He," "she," "he/she," or just "the burglar," would have been preferable.

Well, no, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using "they" like that. It's the singular neuter pronoun *and* the plural neuter pronoun in English. Has been for *literally* centuries - go look up some Shakespeare.

The problem is that it's horrifically ambiguous when you also have a plural referent in the sentence - every time the story used "they" it sounded like it was talking about the homeowners. You're correct that using "the burglar" would have been best.
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kevin lane, 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:36am

Re: Re:
yea they should be able to bind the ip address to his home modem which will have a mac address on it which will be registerd with the isp and more than likely linked to his account as most isp can do remote diags. unless he was going through a wireless router e.g next doors then they would just need to set up a perimiater around the area if the owners have some sort of extended warrenty with who ever they brought the laptop off they can check the serial number and see if matches...they will get him just a matter of time
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John Doe, 17 Aug 2009 @ 6:50am

Where were the cameras?
You mean with all the surveillance cameras in the UK they can't catch this guy? Maybe they need more cameras?
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Peet McKimmie (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:11am

Re: Where were the cameras?
Nah, I agree with Headbhang - we need more Camerons... :-)
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Richard, 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:15am

A thief has been tracked this way
I'm sure I saw something recently about a thief being tracked down by this very mechanism - can't seem to find it again right now - can anyone help?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:23am

Re: Re:
The ability to "Find Your iPhone" isn't inherent in the iPhone itself. It is a feature of having an iPhone and a MobileMe account (USD $99/year) combination.
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Sheinen, 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:50am

I'm just happy that we're so emotionally retarded that a story about people who've been robbed isn't as important as the possibly incorrect grammar
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alternatives(), 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:50am

Age of the Nintendo DS owner may be key.
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alternatives(), 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:52am

Age of the Nintendo DS owner may be key.
If the home has a kid, age 10 to 23 - odds are the kid gave a list of what was stolen to others and I'd lay odds the bragging is someone in the kids peer group being a griefer.

(Seems griefer is a term from PVP games that describes being an asshole)
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John Doe, 17 Aug 2009 @ 7:58am

Re:
Say what? You are worried about the "possibly" incorrect grammar and you don't even know for sure if it is incorrect? Maybe you should worry about your own lack of understanding. Me, I don't know if it is incorrect or not but I am not worried about it either. Ignorance is bliss, as "they" say. ;)
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Michial Thompson, 17 Aug 2009 @ 8:54am

Re: Re: Re:
Finding your phone iPhone or not is really a function of the phone provider. *IF* they are willing to even try.

Recently I had $7200 worth of stuff stolen from my car, one of the items was my aircard. I went to Sprint who told me that the only thing they are willing to do is to block the aircard from being used on another account.

They refused to help me find out when it was last powered up, or even where it was last recorded as being.

In this case though, at least here in the states, the burglar taunting them online wouldn't prompt the police to go through the paperwork to request the IP address, it's owner, and eventually it's subscriber. Especially when its a large company like MySpace because it would take too long, cost too much and have pretty good odds of it coming back to some public library or something like that.

In an ideal world the police would actually do their job in EVERY case, but the truth is they don't have the manpower to do what it takes with every report, so they have to go for the stupid criminals, then pick and choose their battles on the rest.

Even though all my customers are Law Enforcement, and I know most of them are good people with good intention, I am actually rather glad that our rights are such in the States to make them work to get some of this information. The alternative is to have our rights erode to such a level that everyone is a criminal until proven inocent.
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mdmadph (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 9:13am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
No, in an idea world people would lock their doors. :P

I wonder how many "home burglaries" are more like "walked in through unlocked door, took a few things, and left."
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Xander C (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 9:28am

ouch...
I recently was robbed some months ago, and I feel for the family that not only have to go though this, but getting taunted as well... that's just cruel and coldblooded...
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hax, 17 Aug 2009 @ 9:37am

police
But perhaps if the police actually did something about robberies they'd stop having so many. Perhaps it's the same few people doing them all the time. I've had my car broken into 3 separate times and not once did they do anything at all.

It should be easy to get those IP addresses..doesn't the RIAA do it all the time?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Aug 2009 @ 11:09am

Re: This reminds me...
The Sarah Connor chronicles is one of the few good shows that's on. Are they currently airing new episodes because I don't see it on my box for some reason. Maybe I misspelled how they entered it?
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Danny, 17 Aug 2009 @ 11:46am

Re: Re: This reminds me...
Unfortunately it was cancelled.
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Alan Gerow (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 1:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, but a homeowner with insurance would be stupid to admit to that. Once an insurance agent got wind that the homeowner didn't lock the door, then their insurance payout would go away.

I imagine a much higher number than gets reported aren't in fact "break & enters" but just "enters", as you suggest. My fiance has a horrible time remembering to lock our apartment front door, but fortunately there's locks on the building doors and her DVDs are placed on the shelves closest to the front door. So, as long as the thieves just grab the easiest DVDs, they're hers anyway ... and then the thieves can bitch & moan later at the number of chick flicks they managed to swipe.
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Alan Gerow (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 1:11pm

Re: police
Because the police don't make money off of getting you your stuff back. They're more interested in arresting drug offenders & writing traffic tickets, because they can sell off the inventory they collect stealing from drug dealers. They know where their money comes from, and it ain't from getting a bunch of CDs stolen from your car back. They've found becoming the thieves themselves is far more profitable.
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zcat (profile), 17 Aug 2009 @ 10:18pm

Re: police
Yeah but...

Copyright infringement is a SERIOUS crime worthy of ~USD$2million fines for a couple of CDs worth.. Compared to this burglary, rape and murder are barely worth the effort required to investigate and prosecute them.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 10:58am

It shouldn't have been a criticism of the telegraph's proper grammar, but instead a criticism of Techdirt's sexist assumption that the mystery burglar is male.
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