Junior Detective Solves Burglary in One Hour Through Facebook

By Daily Mail Reporter, 2 November 2012

It was a bit of detective work that even Sherlock Holmes would be proud of after a teenager tracked down a thief who burgled his family home - in just one hour.

Connor Kendall, 16, was told by police that there was little hope of ever finding the burglar who got away with a £1,000 haul - including a digital camera, camcorder, a laptop, and wristwatch - from his family home in Cornwall.

But he decided to take matters into his own hands and incredibly the amateur sleuth had things wrapped up in no time when he managed to track down the culprits himself.

Connor and three friends went into Bodmin near where he lives and began talking to local youngsters, friends and neighbours to find out if anyone knew anything.

After just 60 minutes of investigating the burglary, they discovered that someone was trying to sell his watch on a Facebook page.

Connor showed the page to police who arrested 22-year-old Jamie Fisher, from Roche, Cornwall - who has now been jailed for 28 months.

Connor said: "I contacted some of my mates and we found out that someone was trying to sell a laptop and cameras to people.

"We decided to go out and try to find the person who was selling them because they sounded like the things stolen from my house.

"We found some boys who said it was Jamie Fisher and the watch was on his Facebook. The whole thing took an hour."

Truro Crown Court heard Connor decided to take his own action after returning to his house and discovering the burglary on October 16. The kitchen window of the home was ajar and the back door unlocked.

Connor rounded up three friends Zak Landert, Jake Campbell, and Alex Long and began asking around until someone showed them the Facebook page.

Police gathered the information from their young helper and arrested Fisher, who admitted the burglary.

Connor’s father, water technician Kevin Kendall, 51, said: 'They went into town and asked people around their age if they knew whether the items were being sold somewhere.

 

"The name of Jamie Fisher came up and that was the case solved. The laptop is still missing but, thanks to Connor and his friends, everything else was found.
 

"It’s a bit of a worry thinking about him talking to people who might know criminals but they all did an excellent job and I’m very proud."

 

Fisher told the court he entered the property because he had no money and was not in receipt of benefits.

The court heard Fisher sold the laptop for £30 to buy cannabis but the other items were recovered.

The total value of the laptop, two digital cameras and the wristwatch Fisher stole was £960 - of which £330 worth was returned.

Sentencing Fisher to 28 months in prison, Judge John Neligan said: "You may have got away with it but for the young man’s detective work."

Arizona Seniors Scammed by "Fake Grandchildren"

Originally posted by the Associated Press, October 23, 2010

Arizona authorities are warning seniors about a scam in which thieves pose as grandchildren over the phone and ask for bail money.

The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office reported Saturday that three such scams have occurred since September last year.

The most recent was on Oct. 18, when a 75-year-old Cottonwood man got a call from a woman who identified herself by name as his granddaughter, told him she had been arrested in Canada and that she needed bail money.

Shortly after, someone who said they were a police sergeant called and told the man to wire $5,600 in bail money to a contact in Florida. The man followed the instructions but later found out his granddaughter never had been arrested and was safe at her home in Utah, and he was out $5,600.

Sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said two similar incidents occurred in September last year.

He said such scams are difficult to investigate because suspects usually live outside the U.S. and throw out cell phones before they can be traced.

D'Evelyn said detectives believe whoever is responsible uses social networking sites, such as Facebook, to identify family members through profiles and photos. In some cases, people write about travel plans and specific family information, making schemes much easier.

He warned people to tell their parents and grandparents about the scheme, and that any requests for money to be wired should be seen as a red flag.

"Remember, these suspects specifically target seniors who may be more trusting and cooperate quickly out of concern for their jailed' loved one," D'Evelyn said.

Facebook Postings in Legal and Financial Arenas

Written by Phil Villarreal - September 8, 2010 - Arizona Daily Star
http://www.azstarnet.com/

Comments and pictures parents post on Facebook can come back to haunt them during custody battles, debt-collection efforts and job applications.

A compromising Facebook post "is like a smoking gun in that you can't destroy it," said attorney Shawn Kenney, the law department team leader at Thrush Law Group.

Kenney said he's seen custody cases hinge on arguments of parental incompetence stemming from Facebook posts. He recalled a case in which a father posted a picture of himself proudly displaying a 3-foot acrylic bong. In another case, Kenney said a mother wrote about how she'd been out with her girlfriends "getting trashed for the third time this week."

"When people put information on Facebook it may not be in their best interest and does come back to haunt them in ongoing litigation involving custody," Kenney said, adding he's also seen a mother call her young boy "my pimp" and a father post a picture of himself baring tattoos while posed with a butcher knife, joking that he was a killer.

Divorce attorney Robbie Lewis, who owns the Law Offices of Robert G. Lewis, P.C., has also seen Facebook rear its often-ugly head in custody battles.

"The whole face of discovery in divorce has really changed over the last few years," Lewis said. "I can't tell you how many times clients have found out about extramarital affairs through looking through their spouses' telephones in the middle of the night, or checking their spouses' e-mail or Facebook accounts."

Lewis said in the past, clients would hire private investigators to dig up dirt on spouses. Now the evidence can be found with a few mouse clicks.

"People put silly things on Facebook accounts - pictures of themselves or other people in bars doing inappropriate things" that end up presented at trial, Lewis said.

Attorney Grady Wade, who, along with his work in other legal fields, defends clients in debt-collection cases and sometimes collects debt for creditors, said while he doesn't personally use Facebook to investigate debtors, anything people post publicly on Facebook is fair game.

"If they put stuff up there, it's pretty much for public use," Wade said. "If they don't make the page private, then it's for public use and they don't have any expectation of privacy."

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which prohibits abusive behavior and restricts the methods collectors can use to locate debtors, doesn't prohibit using social networking sites.

Wade said third-party debt collectors aren't allowed to publicly shame debtors. For instance, a collector couldn't become a friend of a debtor under a false pretense and then post something on his wall about him owing money.

The restrictions don't apply to the creditors themselves, Wade said, adding that he'd advise clients to record any contact with a third-party collector.

Tucsonans applying for jobs at the University of Arizona, the region's second-largest employer, had best clean up their Facebook profiles.

UA human-resources manager Chris Wolf said managers dig up whatever information they can to vet job prospects, and Facebook is within limits.

"If a candidate regularly references violent behavior, then that may be a red flag," Wolf said. "It's more likely that a hiring manager will discover that someone references topics such as their political views - irrelevant when it comes to determining whether they can perform well, yet it may create an unintended bias."

No matter the context, Kenney said people should stop thinking of Facebook posts as semi-private announcements to close friends. He recalls a mentor's advice from decades ago, advising him to be careful about what he put in writing and says it applies to social networking sites:

"Never put anything on there you wouldn't want on a billboard on the highway," he said.