So some dude from Michigan posted a story to Digg around a month ago, stating that someone had stolen his $2000 Sony HD video camera, that he knew who did it, and that he'd gone to the police and that they're not doing anything about it. (What a shocker.) I guess he only posted a YouTube video about it, which is down now, so I can't actually hear what he had to say anymore. He wasn't getting any help from officials, so he decided to post the alleged robber's telephone number on Digg so the multitudes of bored, low-integrity geeks could harass the person as they saw fit.

The first time I heard about this was when I saw his SECOND post to Digg only a couple days ago, saying that he's been slapped with a felony for posting that telephone number. Right, so apparently, it's a felony to post someone's telephone number that results with them being contacted more than twice without their consent, despite the fact that telephones are... you know... listed publically in books and websites around the country. I'll bet Google doesn't know about this law, otherwise someone could try to cash in on some serious money.

Then today, this article reaches Digg. A nice unbiased (hahahaha) article about how the woman who allegedly stole the camera is being needlessly traumatized by the hordes of internet folks. How she's living in constant fear due to the actions of a crazy man. Good ol' unbiased news.

I'm not going to make any judgment about what's transpired, but I will make a few notes.

1. The man called the police department, his multiple insurance agencies and generally seemed to exhaust all official avenues for getting his property back, or at least the value of the property back. All around, he gets ignored or simply told that they won't help him. The police told him that they're not in the business of recovering stolen property... Okay... So what ARE you there for?
2. The woman was living with the man at the time of the camera being stolen. Really bad idea... Because stuff like this can happen. It's pretty much generally a really bad idea to live together like that when you're not married anyway.
3. It's a felony to post someone's telephone number and then have them be contacted more than twice without their consent. Can anyone say "DUMB LAW?" This is the state, though, that wanted to give all first-year college students free iPods for educational purposes, so I can't say I'm really surprised, but this guy might be going to prison simply because he posted a telephone number that's probably listed in so many places already. The person could have called her phone company and had the number changed if it was so "traumatizing". But, nah. The theft report is being ignored, but this guy is going to prison for posting a phone number. (Which I don't think I would ever do. I think it was pretty lame to post her phone number on Digg, but I also don't think it should be a "serious crime".)
4. Now the real news is picking up the story and spinning the entire event in the theft suspect's favor. I wasn't surprised about that, either. They probably saw a chance to report on a woman being harassed through the internet and decided to sensationalise the entire thing out the wazoo.

So let this be a lesson to ya'. Don't live with the opposite gender, and, if you do so anyway, don't make them angry, because they'll make your life miserable. It is interesting to read all the articles and blog posts, though. The guy's got some interesting evidence supporting the fact that he had really been stolen from, with some links to a couple of selling sites where his camera showed up under her usernames. (She denied it, of course.)

Anyway... Something to think about. I think I'll file this under politics, because what caught my eye was that horrible felony law.