Social Media Leads to Arrest of Home Intruder

Facebook helped a homeowner catch an intruder who broke into his home.
Published: February 12, 2015

I had just finishing posting an article about social media’s impact on enterprise security when I came across this gem.

Unlike most of the “dumb criminal” stories we post on securitysales.com, this one actually doesn’t have anything to do with video surveillance. Rather, in this instance, a burglar was so hooked on Facebook that he felt the need to update his status during the robbery.

Now, here is where it gets interesting: the intruder forgot to log out of his Facebook account before he fled the scene. So, when the homeowner got home, he was able to locate the criminal, using the intruder’s own Facebook account!

While that may not seem important to installing security contractors, here is some food for thought. In his latest “IT Intelligence” column, Bob Stockwell stated:

SSI Newsletter

“With the widespread popularity of social media and photo sharing, many new mobile apps are offering a plethora of capabilities to scan digital photos and find like persons within the images in a high-speed format. This provides another great opportunity to create new integration with security-based PSIM platforms that record volumes of video that are often just archived and reviewed only when events dictate. Facial recognition represents the best opportunity for advanced warning of potential threats if social media is integrated with traditional security platforms and infrastructure.”

Sure, Stockwell was talking about enterprise security and this video is really about the residential market, but electronic security contractors can definitely use this information when helping their customers decide on the best solutions for their facilities.

Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series