from The Register[1]

"New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized to an elderly Brooklyn couple on Friday for about 50 door-pounding visits police made to their home resulting from a glitch in one of the department's computers.

Police used the address of Rose and and Walter Martin's modest home as part of "random material" to test the automated computer system that tracks crime complaints and records internal police information, a department official told the Associated Press. As a result, police over the past four years have repeatedly banged on their doors and demanded the couple open up."

"Police officials thought they had resolved the problem in 2007, when the couple's address was wiped from the system, but that assessment was later proven wrong."

"This time, police officials say, the Martins' address has been flagged with an alert, "so if there's any record indicating an officer should visit the address, 'they're barred from doing it,'" the AP said here."

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/19/police_raid_glitch/

Several news outlets are reporting that an Australian lawyer just served legal papers to a couple via Facebook, the social network, by citing it as  their last known address.  This was deemed legal by the courts and sets a scary precedent, many of us have multiple accounts on social networks, most of which we never bother to check.  Now that this has happened in Austrailia it could quickly and easily spread to other countries.

If this couple had not checked their facebook status, they could have stood to be in contempt of court and loose their home! 

From the article:

Courts usually leave legal documents at a defendant's last known address or somewhere they know family members are.

Mr Moore said the Facebook option was a novel way of serving documents and probably an effective option of bringing court action to someone's attention.

"I suspect it is a first and can't see why it can't be followed here," he said.

I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen...