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Cybercafe Robbers Forget to Log Out of Facebook

By Andrew Chow, Esq. on May 16, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Crime doesn't pay, especially when you forget to log out of Facebook.

A pair of alleged armed robbers learned that the hard way, after police arrested them for holding up an Internet cafe, MSNBC reports.

The blundering criminals at first appeared to be regular patrons, signing in and renting two computers. But when they got up to settle the bill, they flashed their handguns, cleaned out the register, and sped away on a motorcycle.

Their status as successful robbers, however, didn't last long.

Employees of the cybercafe in Calima, Colombia, called the cops, according to MSNBC's translation of the original report in Spanish-language El Tiempo. Officers soon discovered that one of the robbers had forgotten to log out of Facebook on the computer he'd just rented.

With no privacy settings to get in the way, police perused the man's Facebook profile. They used that data to look up the man's home address, where they found him and took him to jail.

MSNBC's translation doesn't mention what happened to the second alleged robber, but we assume police nabbed him too.

The men likely face armed robbery charges in Colombia. Technically, the one who forgot to log out of Facebook could also face consequences for violating Facebook's terms of use.

Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which applies to all Facebook users worldwide, states, "You will not ... let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account."

Thus, forgetting to log out of Facebook on a public computer could be grounds for terminating the man's Facebook account. But chances are, the Facebook police (do they even exist?) won't get involved. The men's legal status is now pending in court.

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