So, I am new to this social networking thing. I know, but it is better late than never, I think. It seems, for the last few days I have been immersed in social networking. Let me explain. When I got back to work after the weekend, I had a Facebook page that is linked to my Twitter account, that both are linked to my phone. I don't know how it happened I just know i was told to tweet and update my face book page while I am out on stories. Well first I had to learn how to do that, and I am still learning. Then I did a story with the Abilene Police Department on how they are about to file their first couple of on-line bullying cases, involving Facebook and some local students (they did not name the schools or the students or what they did exactly, but you can imagine), so I had to do some research to know what I was talking about. Well, today I learned that not only is there a learning curve on how to use all this stuff, but there is one on when to use it. I was in the 104th district court today for the Timothy Moreno murder trial. After the lunch break, I was sitting outside the courtroom, waiting for the trial to get started back up, when I saw the District Attorney walk by with a piece of paper in his hand. He went to the Bailiff of the 104th and they walked for just a second together and the DA handed the paper to the Bailiff. The Bailiff then walked towards me and said "This will not happen again in my courtroom." He showed me the paper the DA had handed him, and it was an article from Big Country Home Page, that included a tweet that I had tweeted from the inside the courtroom. Apparently the Judge does not allow tweeting from his court room. I apologized to Rafe, the Bailiff, who was nice as could be about the whole thing but I did not get to apologize to the Judge, but I hope to catch up with him tomorrow. Sorry Judge.

Face to Face With the Burglars, Now What?

Recently an Abilene family reported to police they walked into their home, and found two teens going through their dresser drawers.

Whoa!

If anyone has ever been the victim of any type of theft or burglary, what is it many of us think/say... "If I could have just seen the person(s) who did this, I'd ____"

What? What would you do?

I know what I'd like to do, but I also know what I'd likely do.

I'd likely yell at them while reaching for the phone and trying to get out of the house, just in case. Sounds logical and I'm sure the police would appreciate the lack of a "heroic attempt" to catch the crooks.

But I'd like to say, I'd stop them. Catch them. Hold them down. Stand heroically like this:

Yes. Eagle included. I don't know where I'd get one, but maybe it would just know that justice was done and it was time to land on my arm..

Yeah. Right.

But we all say what we'd like to do, so I want to know, how would you handle that situation?

Comment away..

PS- In this case, the son spotted the burglars, the burglars spotted the son and fled by jumping through an open window. Everyone is safe and the report says nothing was immediately missing.