Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Facebook: better than the police!

Stealing in shops becomes more and more of a problem. The shopkeepers report the crime to the police, but our slow-working judicial system doesn't pay a lot of attention to this sort of crime. (Probably they figure a shopkeeper earns enough.)

For these people the coming of the social networks is a real blessing. Nowadays they don't report to the police anymore, but place the pictures made by the CCTV camera's on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. Friends of the thieves recognize them and most of the time they are reported - and they return the stolen goods.

This is not legal, of course - but is stealing??? A criminal has a right to privacy, according to our law. More and more people care to differ in opinion. This morning an article about such sort of crime caught my attention.

A restaurant owner in Knokke-Heist (the most exclusive seaside resort on our North Sea coast) put pictures on Facebook. Some customers ordered champagne and lobster on his terrace, ate and drank with taste, but took off before the main course was served. Luckily the terrace was guarded by camera's and the owner of the restaurant could print out a pic of the table where the pair was sitting. He placed it on Facebook and not much longer he already got a call. The pair returned to pay the bill.

Now the restaurant owner can face a penalty for putting these pictures online - if the pair would put down a complaint. Luckily most of them don't, because the blame by being exposed on Facebook is bad enough.

How does it work in your country?

No comments:

Post a Comment