Estate Planning

Please Rob Me: From Obituaries to Tweets

By Hull & Hull LLP

Last week I heard a report on CBC Radio, and read an article in the Globe and Mail about a new website, Please Rob Me, that takes information posted on Twitter from a location-sharing program Foursquare and posts it, showing when people are not home.
 

The point behind the website is to drive home the message that sharing too much information may be harmful, and can be easily misused.
 

However, as noted in the Globe article, break-ins are usually crimes of opportunity, and in most cases are not highly planned.  There are many low-tech ways of determining whether someone is home or not.
 

The story and the website reminded me of what was most likely an urban legend that I heard a long time ago to the effect that robbers  would review obituaries and determine the time of a deceased's funeral. They would then look up the deceased's address old-school style (using a phone book), and rob the deceased's home during the funeral, knowing that no one would likely be home, and that neighbours may also be at the funeral.
 

Same idea, different technology.
 

Thanks for reading,
 

Paul Trudelle
 

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).