14 DAY TRIAL // You'd think people would be more respectful of people's hard-earned money, especially when it belongs to the elderly, but that does not seem to be the case. An Australian teenager learned this lesson the hard way, in addition to the one where you probably should use Facebook's privacy features.
The story goes like this: a 17-year-old was helping her grandmother count her savings. By the end of their count, the money amounted to a nice, sizable stack.
The girl snapped a photo of it and posted it on her Facebook account, only to have her home broken into on the same day.
For those who want the timeline, the photo was posted online at around 4 PM local time and then, at 11:30 PM, two masked men broke into the house and demanded the money.
They, at least, did not hurt anyone, but they also didn't leave the premises until they searched through the house, only to leave almost empty-handed.
By “almost” we mean to say that they couldn't find the savings, presumably because they were no longer there, but they did make off with a small amount of cash and other items.
The New South Wales police department is searching for the felons, but it also advises more caution in the use of online information sharing services.
All things considered, the teenager probably shouldn't have had her address available for all to see. Privacy features are there for a reason after all, and this incident will fan the flames of people speaking against Facebook and social networks in general.
Then again, we aren't going to start blaming the victim either, especially considering how suspiciously fast the crime happened. Either the girl is among the most unlucky of Earth's creatures and just happened to have her photo viewed by a random criminal pair, or the burglars knew precisely what and where to look for when they saw the picture. Either way, the time frame strongly suggests that the burglars live in her area.