Teens Firebomb Old Air Force Hangar - Put Video On MySpace.com - Arrested

[matcom]

:eyes:

<snip>

Two teenage boys firebomb an abandoned Air Force hangar and film the stunt. So far, so stupid. Then, they post the video to a MySpace profile, making it easy for local law enforcement to identify and arrest the miscreants. The fearsome twosome is now on the loose (or should that be lose?) again and awaiting possible charges of possessing "destructive devices." The actual damage to the hangar was reportedly minimal.

"That was very lucky," said Novato Police Lt. Jim Laveroni. "Anytime you are using an explosive you can cause harm to yourself, harm to witnesses, harm to the person who videotaped it and harm to the structure you are throwing at or setting aflame."

I guess lots of kids want to star in their own Jackass/Viva La Bam/Watch Me Nearly Kill Myself And Others videos these days, and what better way to spread the word about your adventures than to post videos to a site that no adult would ever understand or go near? That seems to be the (lack of) thinking here, but the "security by obscurity" strategy doesn't seem to hold up very well these days. Police officers in sleepy Novato, CA—a suburb in the hillside around San Francisco and recently named one of the best places to retire by CNN—are watching sites like MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, and Facebook as part of their beat, if you will.

Laveroni said police officers stationed at each middle and high school in Novato regularly surf the MySpace site for signs that local teenagers may be involved in criminal activity such as drug or alcohol use, sexual assault or vandalism.

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http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060407-6553.html

[BigMcLargehuge]

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[matcom]

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[BigMcLargehuge]

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