Indiana woman claims Facebook status update prompted robbery

A woman from New Albany, Indiana says that one of her Facebook “friends” burglarized her house after she posted an update indicating that she and her fiancé would be out for the evening.

Keri McMullen says that the house she lives in is currently for sale, and that she and fiancé Kurt Pendleton recently installed home security cameras after a wine glass was broken and no one claimed responsibility:

“We put the cameras up last Monday because the house was being sold,” McMullen said. “Because people are showing the house while we’re not home, we want to know if something happens.”

However, the burglars caused far more havoc than simply breaking a glass:

Video shows the men going through McMullen’s purse and looking through their drawers. McMullen said the burglars emptied a laundry basket and filled it with things to steal.

The thieves stole a plasma television off the wall as well as a PlayStation, XBox, laptop computers and DVDs.

McMullen posted images from the incident on her Facebook page hoping someone could help identify the perpetrators. She received information about one of the alleged burglars and realized that she and her sister were added on Facebook about six months ago by the man she now suspects in the robbery. McMullen says that over twenty years ago, she lived across the street from the man she believes stole around $10,000 worth of items from her home. She says without help from her Facebook friends she would not have “put two and two together.”

While the sleuthing is impressive (Pendleton works in home security), police say that they’re not quite ready to move on the information:

Floyd County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jeff Firkins said they have possibly identified the suspects, but nothing has been confirmed.

“We’re not ready to make any arrests,” Firkins said.

As for McMullen, she is re-evaluating her Facebook friend list.

[News Tribune via Gawker]