It was a simple request, but it was loaded with malicious intent: "I need to hide my roommate?" The alleged advice-seeker is Pedro Bravo, a 20-year-old Florida man who's charged with killing his friend, according to Mashable. In Bravo's trial, prosecutors presented a screenshot from the cache of the accused man's phone. Replying to Bravo's request, Siri returns with a question of her own: "What kind of place are you looking for?" She offers five different options: swamps, reservoirs, metal foundries, dumps and mines. This was, of course, intended as a joke, since Siri was never designed to be an accomplice to any crime, let alone murder. But the allegation that Bravo turned to the popular cyber helper (though an update to the Mashable article says it could have come from somebody else) suggests that crime, just like everything else, is becoming more and more dependent on technology.
When it comes to Internet news, instances of criminal idiocy like this are ideal media fodder. But if you want to know what's absolute catnip to the press, you need only stand at the intersection of dumb crime and technology. With the widespread emergence of social media and the extent to which people are always plugged in, it's no surprise that criminals use these resources in connection with their unsavory deeds. What is surprising, though, is how colossally dumb such uses can be. In the same vein as Pedro Bravo, here's some other criminals who might have been better off never getting a smartphone:
- Danielle Saxton: So you've just bought a shiny new dress at the store. What's the first thing you're going to do? Take a selfie and put in on Facebook, of course! But if that dress wasn't purchased, and was, in fact, stolen, you'd think that the criminal would try to keep a lower profile. Wrong! In July, an Illinois woman named Danielle Saxton allegedly stole a dress and then, just a few hours later, proudly posted an image of her wearing it to various social media platforms, according to Metro. And then, as if that weren't enough, she proceeded to make the picture her profile image. In a town of around 10,000, it wasn't very hard for the owners of the boutique the dress had reportedly been stolen from to identify their swiped product and, beneath it, the culprit.
- Chris Crego: Few criminals have played a more helpful role in getting themselves arrested than Chris Crego. In 2009, he was charged with assault and due to be sentenced. Only problem is, he'd skipped town on the day of sentencing, according to CBS. But that turned out to be only a minor hiccup for authorities, since Crego continued to live his life in the spirit of full social media disclosure that wasn't exactly suited for a man on the run. Through a very quick search, authorities were able to identify Crego's Facebook and MySpace accounts where – despite being a fugitive – he was dutifully tracking his own movements. Not one to be vague about the details, Crego conveniently posted his place of work as well as the hours he worked there, so that capturing him was just about as easy as it gets.
"If it wasn't for criminals like him our job would be a lot harder," said Capt. Richard Podgers at the time. The police department also thanked Crego for helping aide his own capture. That thank you came, fittingly, as a comment on Crego's Facebook.
As bad as things turned out for these three social media-hungry criminals, they've really helped build the prosecutors' cases. The message here is that anything you say or tweet or post or gram can and will be used against you.
