There is a popular notion that people are getting stupider. But what if that’s an over simplification? What if people are just as stupid as they’ve always been, but it’s just easier to get caught nowadays? Pause your Dancing with the Stars PVR and lend me your ear; I propose that the path of today’s moron is beset with the pitfalls of the technological era.
In the good ol’ days, felons could just stroll in, stick a gun in some clerk’s chest and make off with the loot. Today, that same hold-up might result in a log-in. Just ask the Colombian burglar who checked his Facebook in the midst of robbing an Internet café…and forgot to log out.
Or witness the case of Michael Baker. After taking a break from what I can only assume was his doctoral candidacy work, he decided to siphon gas. From a police car. And take a picture. And put it on Facebook. Inexplicably, these decisions led to his capture and arrest.
My personal favourite, both due to the high-tech nature of the justice and the composed, nonchalance of the victim, is the story of Katy McCaffrey and her stolen iPhone. In years past, a thief would have gotten away no problem after having stolen an old Polaroid or even a digital camera. But thanks to Katy’s photostream account, she was able to see every photo the thief — an employee of the cruise ship she had vacationed on — had taken. This lead to the return of her iPhone and the firing of Nelson, former cruise ship worker and amateur photographer.
Moral of the story? It’s always been easy to do something dumb – but making it your status update? That’s next level.
