Switched reports:
If you're going out of town, you're supposed to have someone come by to take in your mail and newspapers so as not to advertise the fact that your home is empty. Therefore, it should go without saying that putting a sign on your front door that says "temporarily unoccupied" would be about as dumb as it gets. So if you're careless about what you post online, you may be doing just that.
According to a Friday report by ABC News, East Mesa, Arizona's Israel Hyman recently discovered this the hard way when his home was robbed of thousands of dollars in computer equipment while he was out of town. When his father, Gerry, stopped by to check on the house, he found the back door jimmied open and his son's Mac Pro, a pair of 23-inch LCD screens, and other equipment missing. Israel believes that the thieves might have been tipped off by his Twitter messages, which also update his Facebook status. He told ABC News that anyone reading his Twitter updates (and Facebook) would have known he was leaving town.
Israel has no intention of quitting his favorite social networking services, though he says from now on he will be more careful about what information he posts online. Clearly, a good idea. We just hope the rest of you don't learn that lesson the hard way
