Burglar gets caught by Facebook

"First Facebook arrest"

14 January 2009 14:11 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Facebook is big and getting bigger as a way to fight crime in Australasia.

Following the news that the site was used to deliver legal papers to a errant couple and track down restaurant bill-dodgers in Oz, police in New Zealand have used the site to catch another crim.

An unnamed 21-year-old - who got too hot while trying to break into a bar's safe and took his balaclava off - saw video and images of him posted on the social networking site for identification.

"The offender was identified after a movie and images of him were displayed on Facebook. He was identified from members of the public viewing him on Facebook and also seeing him on TV after the Facebook images were displayed on the news", the police station said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Full tags

Software, Websites, Facebook, Social networking