Thieves Use Google to Crack Safes

For the second time in a month, burglars have downloaded information from Google during the commission of their crimes to learn how to crack safes. On June 10, 2007 a pair of burglars in Colorado used google.com to learn how to crack a safe at Bigg City, an indoor amusement center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The thieves stole $12,000 in cash and have not yet been caught. Apparently the pair had tried unsuccessfully for over an hour. They then used Google to look up information on safecracking, found what they needed and were able to crack the safe. Later in June 2007 a fired restaurant manager in Wilmington, Delaware was caught after using Google for tips during an attempted burglary.

A Google search for “how to crack a safe” yielded 4.5 million web pages. According to Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, the information on the internet can assist terrorists. "They can train themselves over the Internet. They never have to necessarily go to the training camp or speak with anybody else and that diffusion of a combination of hatred and technical skills in things like bomb-making is a dangerous combination. According to the Times online, European regulators are considering whether or not to outlaw the publication of bomb making information on the internet. A recent Google search for “bomb making” produced over 700,000 websites.