It underscores perfectly the old adage: "While the cat's away, the mice will play."
Teenager Corey Delaney waited for his parents to head off on holiday interstate before inviting a few mates over one Saturday night.
The trouble was, as many as 500 revellers descended on the family's modest suburban house, sparking scenes of mayhem in which police - responding to calls of complaint from the neighbours - were outnumbered 17 to one by drunken partygoers.
Corey couldn't have picked a more popular bulletin board to advertise his hooley: internet social networking site MySpace, as well as mobile phone SMS - the Generation Y's choice of invitation stationery.
By the end of the night, several police cars and neighbours' property were damaged, and by the next day Corey's legendary status among his old - and new found - friends was cemented.
Radio and television stations and newspapers around the world quickly picked up on the story, with commentators and critics alike saying the Paris Hiltons, Lindsay Lohans and Britney Spears of the world had nothing on 16-year-old Corey, among other plaudits and put-downs.
The teenager, from Narre Warren in Melbourne's south-east, is not the first to go behind his parents' back and host a party in their home, with the event being advertised on the net.
Equally, mother Jo and stepfather Steve Delaney can possibly take some comfort in the fact that they are not alone in having their home invaded by uninvited yobs.
Last April, home-alone teenager Rachael Bell advertised her house party on MySpace, expecting 60 friends and guests to attend.
Instead, as many as 200 gatecrashers turned up - some even smuggled into the house in suitcases - and proceeded to trash the family's home near Sunderland, north-east England, causing more than $40,000 in damage.
Rachael, 17, later claimed her MySpace site had been hacked into by yobs who extended an open invitation to trash the house.
Last October, Christopher Worthy's parents allowed him to invite a few friends over to the family's home in Chippenham, south-west England, to celebrate his 16th birthday, overseen by older brother Stephen, while the rest of the family went out for a meal.
But the party turned sour when 150 louts turned up uninvited after details were posted on YouTube.
As well as their home being trashed, Chris's dad David and Stephen, 18, were bashed and hospitalised with serious injuries.
Unlike both British teens, however, Corey Delaney's public profile has grown exponentially on the back of his party.
Depending on what newspaper or news website you read or which TV or radio station you listened to this week, Delaney was either lauded as a "legend" or branded an idiot, "wanker", "party pest" or, even, "just a naughty boy".
None of which influenced his cavalier attitude and disrespect towards the authorities and his parents.
A day after the party, the media caught up with Delaney as he enjoyed a day at the beach with friends and girlfriends, refusing to answer mobile phone calls from his parents.
By Monday, police were threatening to bill him and his parents for up to $20,000 to cover the damage caused, while the story gathered momentum on international media outlets such as the BBC and CNN.
Then, offers of work and deals with magazines, talent agents and event promoters began flooding in, serving to bolster his public persona.
Inevitably, there would also be a www.coreydelaney.com website - created by someone other than the subject himself - while another online offering, www.slapcorey.com - a game giving visitors the chance to virtually slap the teenager across the face - had registered more than 26,000 users by Thursday afternoon.
But while the mass media frenzy threatened to continue spiralling out of control, one adolescent expert was urging caution, saying that at the end of the day Delaney was "just another teenager doing silly teenage things".
Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said Australia's obsession with "silly stories", together with the demonising of young people, did little to improve the situation.
"It's really sad to hear people phoning into talkback radio and calling this kid a wanker," Dr Carr-Gregg laments.
"What's happening is all this coverage is feeding Australia's passion for demonising young people. The media rewards delinquency. I would hope there'd be a lot more developmental perspective.
"In many respects, I would love Australians to stop judging him through adult eyes and recognise that he's just a kid but the barrage of comments directed towards him simply shows there is so much intolerance of young people.
"The media are not good with running good news stories about young people - research shows 70% of kids would not engage in this type of behaviour yet we only hear about the few who do."
An expert in parenting adolescents and adolescent mental health, Dr Carr-Gregg reckons Delaney's parents also have as much to answer for as their wayward son. And, he says, the best thing that could happen now is for the family to simply sit down and talk.
"You would have to be incredibly naive to think he would be a choir boy while they were away. From the coverage these last few days, we've all seen that that was unlikely to happen," he adds.
"Parents need to be world experts on their kids. They should set limits and boundaries.
"This kid is 16 going on five, but age does not define maturity.
"Corey has become the poster child for such adolescent displays of immaturity."
