A Washington, D.C., burglar posted a photo of himself on his victim’s Facebook account holding money he had lifted from the boy’s desk, writes the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher. The victim was Fisher’s son, 15. “I’ve seen a lot, but this is the most stupid criminal I’ve ever seen,” said police officer Kyle Roe. Still, Fisher says two officers said police in the city rarely press hard on burglary cases because the courts almost always let thieves go with nothing more than probation. Maybe that’s why four days after handing over the photo, the Fishers waited to hear from the detective assigned to the case.
Burglaries are up 11 percent in Washington this year, to a total that will top 4,000 — most likely a reflection of continued hard times, especially since virtually every other category of crime is down. Police made 30 burglary arrests in the last two weeks of November, up from six in the same weeks last year. Nationwide, police solved only 12 percent of burglaries last year; in big cities like Washington, the figure often is barely more than half that high. Says Fisher: “No wonder the guy in our photo wore such a confident smirk.”