Pittsburgh Youths Show How to Be Stupid Crooks on Facebook

COMMENTARY | In another example of how the Internet is providing more opportunities for people to be stupid, CBS News Pittsburgh relates a story in which a gang of youths stole thousands of dollars in cash and loot and then posed with it on Facebook.

This sort of story is becoming more and more common. From people who commit assaults, videotape them, and then post the felony on YouTube to the congressman who sends naked pictures of himself on Twitter, examples of how stupid crooks do the work of the police as well as that of the criminal are replete.

It may be a commentary on the complexity of the modern world that armed robbers allow their egos to get the better of them and, in effect, confess to their crimes for all the world to see. It used to be that to be so incredibility stupid, one would have to pose with a pile of one's ill-gotten gains in front of the police station, taunting the officers with, "See! See what we did!"

It was likely the ego trip more than the need for some ready cash that motivated these delinquents to embark on a life of crime to start with. A professional criminal, one not interested in getting caught, will rob a place, get away, and will have some discreet way to dispose of the loot without being the wiser.

But the Facebook Bandits, as one might call the, seemed interested in showing their friends and hence the whole world how cool and bad they were, having grabbed all that booty. It is probable that it had not entered into their heads that people who might disapprove of robbery would also see their boastful posts and would react as good citizens and turn them in. It this case it was a family member of one of the perpetrators.

Three of the robbers are juveniles and one is an 18-year-old. How the criminal justice system will handle them is a matter of conjecture at the moment. But someone should advise them to find another line of work aside from breaking and entering. They are not very good as master criminals.

Source: Facebook Photos Lead Police To Suspects In Burglary, CBS News Pittsburgh, Dec 22, 2011