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From today's Wall Street Journal:

Burglars Are Following You on Facebook

I learned the hard way that social media lets the world know when you’re out of town.
By Peter Funt

Sept. 11, 2019 7:23 pm ET

When my daughter’s wedding drew the family out of town for an extended weekend, I should have realized that my home’s security was as fragile as the family’s emotions.

The mail and the six newspapers I receive each day were dutifully picked up by a neighbor. A few lights were strategically left on in the house. The alarm system was engaged. Yet as I was getting set to walk Stephanie down the aisle, my cellphone vibrated with news from the alarm company that our house was experiencing an active burglary. The culprit, I’m convinced, was social media.

Our newly married daughter has absorbed a few words of my wisdom over the years, but I’ve never been able to modify her behavior when it comes to PDA: public displays of addresses. Her life is an open Facebook .

By the time Instagram and Twitter joined Facebook with detailed pings about the time and place of the wedding, would-be burglars had a digital road map of our whereabouts. Making matters worse, a story in a big national newspaper that morning stated the date of the wedding, the precise location, and the community where our vacant house could be found.

I later learned from neighbors that—several hours before the burglars arrived—thieves also stole five cartons of wedding gifts that Crate & Barrel had left on the stoop.


Last fall the Los Angeles Police Department investigated a spate of residential burglaries targeting actors, producers and professional athletes. “Initially it was believed that the homes were being burglarized at random,” the LAPD stated. But after investigation it was revealed that “the victims’ homes had been selected based on social media postings.”

An August 2018 article in London’s Telegraph included this disconcerting bit of information: “Insurers are increasingly rejecting claims made by customers whose houses have been burgled while on holiday if they have shared the fact that they are away from home on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.” The report cited a survey showing that a surprisingly high number of Britons had been burgled after posting their location abroad on social media.

In Houston, seven people were charged over the summer in connection with a social media-based burglary ring. Detectives determined that the criminals would search social media for posts indicating when homeowners would be at work or on vacation.

I’ve never understood the motivation of those who share their every move on Facebook—from the moment they arrive at the restaurant to the moment the desert is served. Can’t it wait a few hours until you get home? I’m inclined to think it’s a generational thing, but I have acquaintances of all ages who are obsessed with this sort of here-I-am posting.

Long before social media there were “obituary bandits” who scoured death notices and robbed homes while the owners were at funerals. Today the full range of life events, from graduations to weddings to reunions, are easy pickings for crooks eyeing social media.

What can one do? Not long after we returned home from the wedding, I received an unsolicited email from Facebook inviting me to join my neighborhood’s “Crime Watch Group.”

Mr. Funt is a writer and host of “Candid Camera.”

Not so much the fault of FB as it was simple carelessness

Nothing like advertising when your home is ripe to rob. But it's nothing new; as mentioned in the article, even before facebook people looked at obituaries and robbed homes during the funeral hours. We had a bunch of that in the late 1970's - early 1980's. When my father passed in 1981, my mother had a house sitter during calling hours and the day of the funeral due to that sort of thing. They're always looking for an easy way to identify an empty home.

Privacy is dead.......because we have killed it.

As a policy, I never post anything until after I'm home and the trip is finished, simply for the reasons above.

The “idea” of Facebook was great....in the beginning. It was nice to be able to keep up with family and friends. Then the newsfeed started, then they got into your business, then suggestions of “friends”....and the rest, then went to schit.

Amazing what you can read able people even without an account.

Don't put my bidnez in the streets. Don't do any sort of social media at all.

This^^^^

Facebook is an IQ test on display.

Should be called Idiot Book.
All social media is bad.
Just say NO

Yep, haven’t been on that for years now.......

It really can be bad and lead to all sorts of un needed drama.... ymmv

It's a poor carpenter that blames his tools....

Lack of nails?😂

Yeah, ok

I was told by a cop years ago to not set in a bar,,at the grocery store, at the gun shop and tell people where you are going. Going hunting, Going on vacation, going to visit kids. Just don,t tell anyone but your person checking on your place you are going to be gone. I see on facesboook evey time someone turns arounds and farts. Damn people are attention starved. Every little thing they do. Plaster their mug shot all across the web.

I don't have FB but wife does & I've reminded her many times about not announcing we are away from home or about to be.

Then, wouldn't ya know it, out with friends a few weeks ago, 30 miles from home. What does one of them do? Take pics & post them public on the spot, I found out days later. I had asked my wife about the the pics & knowing I know little to nothing about FB, wife played dumb or played it down.

My daughter whom is 800 miles away knew about our night out, & explained how our friend had all her stuff public. I guess so she can be seen as much as possible. Eff that stupid assed chit. Not everyone needs to know my business & I damn sure don''t need my door kicked in at the house while I'm out trying to enjoy myself.

Gonna have to act like I'm wanted or the like, not allowing my pic to be taken & telling no one of future plans.

Really? Not even the one you posted this on?

About a year ago a friend of mine had his entire house ransacked of valuables. Guns, coins, jewelry, etc. The thieves took their time.

Crackheads on bikes had seen him and his wife packing up their camp trailer and knew they were going to be gone for some time. They jumped his fence, broke a window in the back, opened the garage door and backed in their truck and then shut the door so they could load in private.

So it's not just Facebook.

I'm not on it, but wife is and she needs to read this warning.

Did you know that this forum is social media?

Thats why I don't put locals on it. Facebooks for my old friends and far away family. Besides if those thieves can get by my busy body neighbors they can have whatever they can cart out. Steel security shutters give it away I'm gone anyway.

This place is rich isnt it.