“A designer who had his laptop stolen helped police by using a spy camera programme to take pictures and catch the thief red-handed,” Chris Parsons reports for The Mail Online.
“Joshua Kaufman thought he had lost his Apple MacBook when a thief broke into his apartment and stole the computer in March,” Parsons reports. “And with police giving his burglary report a low priority, he was resigned to never recovering the expensive laptop until he remembered the software he had installed on his MacBook.”
Parsons reports, “Using ‘Hidden’ software, he remotely took pictures of the thief using his stolen computer – before handing the evidence to police to make an arrest. Mr Kaufman captured the thief in a variety of bizarre locations – including using the stolen MacBook in bed, and in his car. ‘Hidden’ also provided him with location information, which police in Oakland, California, used to identify the thief as a taxi driver.”
Full article with many of the photos Kaufman snapped of the thief, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “librium” and “master cylinder” for the heads up.]
SWEETNESS!
i read this story elsewhere. the police wouldn’t act for him until the press got involved because they didn’t want to take time away from detectives.
Photo #2 is creepy.
I recommend irradiating that Macbook.
I installed open source software from http://preyproject.com/
Orbicule’s Undercover has been doing this for years. I wouldn’t own an laptop w/out it: http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
From their site:
What if the thief can’t login into an account? Will Undercover still phone home?
We do recommend to create a dummy account that will enable the thief to play around on your Mac. This account should have a blank password and no admin privileges.
Useless.
Thieves will simply start formatting the drives.
I wouldn’t have waited months to get it back, especially after the police blew me off.
Honestly, there are more clever ways of getting it back.
Waited months?? Oh yeah, you are right, 2 makes for months.
He did not wait. He started working on getting it back the day it was stolen by filing the report that same day.
Clever..
My HP Laptop NEVER gets stolen!!!! 🙁
It would’ve been better if it had been stolen by a hot 18 year old chick that kept it in her bedroom where she changes clothes. In that case I’d have just let her keep the computer so I could continue enjoying the show.
That brings up an interesting scenario. What if the laptop sent back photos of a nude child? Would the owner of the laptop be charged with child pornography?
“That brings up an interesting scenario. What if the laptop sent back photos of “… a 50 year old broad with tits
hanging down, hiding her fat beer belly, and hair on her
back. Oh, the inhumanity! 🙂
The thief is a cabbie… No offense to all cabbies but if I called for a cab and it pulled up with a driver looking like him behind the wheel?!…
No Thank-You!
The thief will probably sue him for invasion of privacy.
What if the photos show… STEVE BALLMER!!! He had to get his hands on a MacBook SOMEHOW without anyone knowing, just to see what all this Macintosh hoopla is about.
I think I’ll sponsor a bikini girl contest, with the grand prize being a MacBook Pro; second prize being a MacBook; and third prize being a MacBook Air.
Then I after I award the prizes to the three hottest contestants, I’ll just go home and watch them in various states of undress as they parade themselves in front of the camera.
If this were my MBP… and the police wouldn’t do anything… even after given the pics and location info…
“Arrested” wouldn’t be the headline.
and i agree… that second picture.. He had better sterilize it before i would even think of using it again.
and just a stupid question… Did the guy leave his Password sticky taped to the MBP? or was it “password” or something stupid the guy could guess, or used Sony’s practices… or better yet, no password.