In Denver, a man bought an iPad for a friend at the Apple Store in Cherry Creek Mall, but soon after had it stolen by thieves, who ripped the flesh off his finger while taking it.

The victim, Bill Jordan, told local media he had the cords of the bag tied around his hand, and when one of the thieves yanked it, he couldn’t let go, and it literally tore the flesh off his finger, leaving nothing but bone.

Update: Ok, make that multiple Facebook groups…(via Business Insider)

An employee in Mahalo’s IT department, John Schiefer, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison for launching a botnet attack. He was charged and agreed to plead guilty back in 2007. In the meantime, he got a job at Mahalo and has been working there up to his sentencing.

The Internet is certainly maligned enough as a place of general depravity and poor etiquette, but all shadows have a lighter side. The Toronto Police, for example, have launched a website where visitors can check out cold homicide cases and provide new clues.

Back in February a man named Wayne Forrester murdered his wife Emma in cold blood (and a cocaine and alcohol-fueled daze) by stabbing her in the head and neck with a kitchen knife and meat cleaver. The reason he did this he said, was because she changed her Facebook profile to "single" shortly after he moved out of their home.

Today, Forrester was sentenced to life in jail, and ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years. BBC News reports:

Trial documents dating back as far as 1674 recorded for cases heard at London’s Old Bailey arrived online thanks to the work of a group of universities.

The Arlington County Police Department in Virginia is using YouTube to help catch criminals.

Surveillance video from crime scenes is being uploaded to the Web site in an effort to receive leads and identify suspects. A two- minute video of a bank robbery received more than 1,000 hits and could be responsible for providing a lead in the case.

They thought they had everything planned out, and if you let your imagination go, you can imagine the conversation in their parents’ basement: No spray paint, but we got some WD-40. They didn’t know they would need Google to help them crack the safe.

Google and Volkswagen have been pals for over a year, but that once-pure relationship appears to have recently devolved into a criminal partnership.  It turns out that the Volkswagen home page – which is powered by a Google Search Appliance, and was also recently featured in the Google Enterprise Blog – contains some hidden text.

Is search engine optimization a waste of time? According to one man in the UK it is.

Anthony Fallon, CEO of Warrington Web Works, a UK Web Publishing company says that search engine optimization is both a waste of time and money to businesses and he can support his argument with proof.

Canadian authorities have been feverishly searching for a man believed to be responsible for murdering one person and seriously injuring another. Thanks to the popular video-sharing site, YouTube, their search may be over.

Ontario police use the popular video sharing site YouTube to help catch a killer.

At the end of the SES Chicago show WebmasterRadio.fm held a press conference announcing some jaw dropping information about data being analyzed regarding click fraud being used to fund terrorist organizations as well as organized crime.

Amsterdam-based ChronoPay B.V., an online merchant account provider for accepting credit and debit card payments, has joined up with online fraud-fighter, the Merchant Risk Council (MRC). ChronoPay adds its name to 6,500 online retailers, vendors, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies that make up the MRC.

If you’d like yet another way to freak out your bride before the wedding, tell her about how search engines can screw up your gift registry. Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz learned that one the hard way.

Phishing and identity theft have been costly to many victims, and AOL wants to help its members combat the threats.

Setting themselves up as champions of free speech, the folks at ThreadWatch have launched a campaign to collect money for SEOBook author Aaron Wall’s legal fund as he battles libel allegations from SEO company TrafficPower.

Chatsworth CA-based Intelligent Computer Solutions introduces a new portable high-speed hard drive duplicator.

Since the introduction of satellite technology onto Google Maps, the service has been the recipient of a number of hacks that can improve the functionality of Google’s map service. Others have found methods in which to include Google Maps into the service they provide as well.

The biggest crime in small businesses today goes unnoticed by most outsiders. It is not reported in the media. There are no police reports filed and companies do not even mention it on their websites. People don’t talk about it on the street and employees often overlook it. Even though this crime is rampant among small businesses, it’s presence is so subtle that many business owners fail to recognize when it is happening! Unfortunately, this crime is the same one that is most likely to kill a small business. It is not stealing by employees, burglaries, trivial lawsuits, or industrial espionage.

Crime Fiction Canada, a searchable database that covers crime fiction, film, and television from all over the world, is now available.