UGA student's Facebook status,"HELP, ROBBERS," helps catch intruders, says report

(CBS) NEW YORK - When three hooded robbers invaded the home of a University of Georgia student Wednesday night, he took to Facebook in a desperate plea for help, and luckily someone heard his cry.

"I don't think [Facebook] is really meant as a lifesaving tool, but it's the only way I could think of contacting someone immediately to call for help," 20-year-old Nitesh Bhakta told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

According to Bhakta, who had left his cell phone at the campus back in Athens, Ga., three hooded men entered his family's Cartersville home, about 45 miles outside of Atlanta,  when he heard his grandmother scream.

"As soon as I opened my door, I saw three hooded guys like all masked in black at the front door," Bhakta told AJC. "I shut my door, locked it, grabbed my laptop, went into the attic and hid."

The assailants tied up his 17-year-old sister and grandmother downstairs as Bhakta sat on a ledge in the attic, gripped with fear, reports the paper. As the thieves rummaged through his home, Bhakta thought to update his Facebook status, which read, "HELP, ROBBERS, NO PHONE."

Though many of Bhakta's friends thought his status was a joke, his best friend, John Slater, took it seriously and alerted the Bartow County sheriff's deputies.

"When [the robbers] heard the sirens ... they all kind of fled in their own little directions," Bhakta told the paper.

Two of the alleged thieves managed to escape, but officers caught one of the men, who has not been identified.