Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyMESA, AZ -- A family is out thousands of dollars after they typed that they were leaving town on the social messaging site
Twitter.com.
"I'm happy they weren't here anyway," said Jerry Hyman, who found his son's home burglarized, "I think that we probably let our guard down a little bit."
Hyman said he found his son's back sliding door open before realizing thousands of dollars in equipment was stolen including a Macintosh Pro computer, a printer and two 23-inch flat panel displays.
But what the out-of-town homeowner said may have tipped off the thieves is the Internet.
"We live pretty public lives," said Israel Hyman, "I do have a strong presence on Twitter and a pretty strong presence on the Internet as a whole because that's how we make our living."
Hyman and his wife own a video podcasting company called
izzyvideo.com.
"Every one of them that reads my tweets that I sent out knows that I was heading out of town," said Hyman, "I've got it set-up where Twitter goes into Facebook, so it could be someone I know about on Facebook."
Unless the crooks are caught, Hyman said there's no way to know for sure if this was a random act or if he was targeted.
But he said the site's transparency is no reason to stop using it.
"In the future I'm not going to be announcing where I'm going to be heading out of town."
Hyman's father said the Mesa Police Department's civilian investigation specialists filed the police report.
The department uses this civilian team to gather evidence for non-violent crimes at the convenience of the victims.
"They did a great job," said Jerry Hyman, the victim's dad, "I was really impressed."
