Potential crooks know when you're not home thanks to 'please rob me' site

By Kathleen Berger

KSDK -- A new website lets potential crooks know when you're not at home. It's called PleaseRobMe.com and it collects Tweets from people around the world.

A quick search of the site by NewsChannel 5 turned up a Tweet from someone local: Tyler Pete Davis, who said he was at a place called Moosylvania and not at home. The quick link to his page is provided by PleaseRobMe.com. NewsChannel 5 cameras went to Moosylvania in Maplewood to find the site's potential victim. And we found him.

A stunned Davis said he "did not know" when confronted with the information that his Twitter posts were being featured on the site.

Of course Davis wouldn't know; because after he Tweets, he's hard at work as an account manager for Moosylvania Marketing. But Tyler said he's not worried, because he doesn't have a listed phone number or address. And he keeps his privacy settings private.

"I just make sure I don't have that personal information published," Davis said.

But not everyone's that careful. Just ask St. Charles County Cyber Crimes Investigator, Lt. Chris Mateja.

"Right now if I went to someone to ask them if I could put their picture, their personal information, address and phone number up on a billboard on Highway 70, they would tell me 'no,'" Mateja said. "But that same person would go to one of their social networking sites and post that information for everybody to see."

Lt. Mateja says the PleaseRobMe.com site isn't breaking any laws. PleaseRobMe.com says it is not trying to encourage burglary; the purpose is to create awareness. Mateja says it would take a lot of work for a thief to find a solid target. In the hour he spent on the site, Mateja could not find a home address in the St. Louis area for a thief to target. But it is possible.

"Now could a criminal potentially go out and do the same thing that they've done and develop a piece of software that goes out there and scans through there to find specific locations? They could do that," Mateja said.

And just because someone Tweets that they are at a location away from home, that does not mean their house is empty.