As if being the victim of burglary wasn’t bad enough, imagine then finding out that the person who broke into your home and stole your laptop was then logging in to your Facebook account and leaving messages for you that all of your friends could see.
That’s what happened to forty-two-year-old Victoria Richardson from East Sussex. She was the victim of a burglary where her laptop, Nintendo DS, iPhone, cash and other items were stolen. However, the callous burglar didn’t stop there. When he’d stolen the Toshiba laptop he then later used it to find that Victoria’s Facebook login details were stored, allowing him to log in to her Facebook account.
The burglar proceeded to taunt Victoria about what he’d stolen, and what he’d left behind.
Victoria’s status updates, posted by the thief, read:
on my new laptop.
Listening to music on my new phone feels so good.
He went on to say how he’d ignored the TV when he burgled her home because it wasn’t good enough:
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 shop, thankyou toshiba is my favourite make.
He ended his taunts by posting:
regards your night time burglar.
Ms Richardson is understandably shocked and sickened by the actions of the burglar, as being burgled is bad, but to be taunted is horrific.
I felt very spooked. I have never felt like that before. It felt like they were rubbing my nose in it.
They have been in your physical space, and then they are in your online space. My friends could all see what they were writing so it was really degrading.
It is bad enough being robbed in the first place but this invasion of my privacy has made it doubly painful.
Of course, what is funny here is that Facebook could provide details to the police of the exact IP used by the burglar to access the account, which would trace them to his home. I’m fairly sure the burglar didn’t think of that before he logged into her Facebook account, but equally sure that the police haven’t thought of it either.
As a police spokesperson stated:
Being burgled is traumatic enough for any family but for the culprit to apparently use their stolen possessions to publicly gloat over the crime is a sinister twist.
As with all burglaries we are taking the matter seriously and a thorough investigation is under way to bring this offender to justice.
A ‘thorough investigation’? Nope, doesn’t sound like they’ve thought of that. This burglar could be caught very easily using technology, technology that he stole and then arrogantly used to taunt his victim.
