Looters in Britain seem to think it's a good idea to post pictures and movies of all the stuff they've been stealing during the current riots. Too bad the cops know they're doing it.
In case you haven't been paying attention to the headlines, the U.K. is in the midst of some particularly nasty riots that started over the weekend and are continuing to spread between cities. Unsurprisingly, looting has been taking place while angry rioters torch smash and burn buildings (as looting and riots often go hand-in-hand), and some of the, ah, prouder thieves have been posting photos and videos of their hauls on social networking sites. You can already tell where this is headed, can't you?
The most infamous photo to show up so far is the one pictured at right, where you can clearly see the thief's face over the stuff he stole. However, many of the rioters have posted similar images, as well as shots of police cars being burned and other acts of vandalism/looting on sites like Facebook and Twitter. At the moment, police forces are stretched thin, but they're apparently investigating folks that are using the sites to document their crimes.
The riots began on Saturday night in Tottenham, a London neighborhood where police wound up fatally shooting a resident while they were investigating "gun crimes." As a result, the riots started there and then proceeded to spread out in a ripple effect and reached other cities like Birmingham and Liverpool.
While criminals might not have to worry about getting arrested by the cops right now (since they're doing their best to, y'know, quell the riots themselves), posting pictures and videos of one's criminal exploits where the entire world can see them is far from the brightest decision one could make. Enjoy your ill-gotten gains, folks, it looks like it's only a matter of time before they earn you an all-expenses-paid vacation to prison.