Burglary ring uses Facebook posts to find target houses

A recent report stated that most Americans continue to opt for privacy ahead of location-based services. That might be a good thing, as otherwise, the crime rate might be rising.

As we've noted before, Check-Ins at using location-based services like Facebook's new Places of FourSquare can lead to not just burglary, but stalking, as well. In this case, a burglary ring in Nashua, NH was taking advantage of Facebook posts to grab between $100,000 and $200,000 worth of stolen property from 50 home burglaries in the city in August.

The miscreants were captured due to a love of fireworks.  In one burglary, a specific type of fireworks was stolen, and police were told to listen for anyone who might be lighting off that type of fireworks in the city. An off-duty police officer heard fireworks going off last month. An investigation led packaging that matched the fireworks taken in one of the burglaries, which then led to the first of the arrests. Police arrested Mario Rojas, Leonardo Barroso, and Victor Rodriguez (L-R, from a Nashua PD photo) in the case.

Police Capt. Ron Dickerson gave the advice all should heed: "Be careful of what you post on these social networking sites. We know for a fact that some of these players, some of these criminals, were looking on these sites and identifying their targets through these social networking sites."