Stolen Laptop Catches Its Own Thief

This has nothing to do with genealogy, but it is a great story. Perhaps you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Thieves recently stole an Apple laptop from Kait Duplaga, who works at the Apple store in the Westchester, New York, mall and thus knows how to use all Macintosh bells and whistles. What the thieves did not know is that Kait has remote control software installed on the laptop so that she can access it from any other Macintosh. She can sit at any other Macintosh computer, connect to the laptop across the Internet (wherever it is located), enter a user name and password, and then operate her laptop just as if she was typing directly on its keyboard.

The thief apparently connected the stolen laptop to an Internet connection and started surfing the Web. Kait sat at her home, using another Macintosh, and connected to the stolen laptop that apparently was now in use by the thief. She was able to see what the thief was seeing, and she watched as the thief went from web site to web site. Everything that appeared on the stolen laptop's screen also appeared on Kait's desktop screen.

Now for the good part: keep in mind that all Macintosh laptops have built-in video cameras. Kait remotely turned on the video camera of the stolen laptop and was able to see the thief live as he typed on the screen. He also noticed that his own picture had appeared on his screen and he smiled for the camera. Kait then snapped a picture.

She then performed a file transfer, copying the picture from the stolen laptop to her desktop system. When she displayed it on her own computer's screen, her roommate said, “Oh, I know exactly who that is — it’s Ian."

It seems that the thief had attended a party hosted by Kait's roommate in their shared apartment some weeks earlier and apparently had seen the Mac at that time. He must have returned at a later date to steal the laptop along with several other items. Kait gave a digital copy of the picture to local police, along with the thief's name as supplied by her roommate.

The police had little difficulty in finding him. “It doesn’t get much better than [the victim] bringing us a picture of the guy actually using the stolen property,” said Daniel Jackson, the deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains, New York.

All of the stolen property was recovered, including the laptop. Ian Frias, 20, who usually lives in the Bronx, is now a resident at the Westchester County Jail, held on $7,500 bail.

Note: I use similar software to access my desktop systems when I am traveling. I can access my computers at home from any hotel room or airport lounge or other location that has an Internet connection. Now I realize it has another use: to catch a thief.

Comments

[Kathryn Doyle]

Dick,

Undercover is the commercially available software from Orbicule advertised as "a unique theft-recovery application designed from the ground up for Mac OS X." The software transmits network information, including IP and router address, sends screenshots at regular intervals, and for new model Macs with iSight, transmits photos of the thief and his surroundings every 6 minutes. I've been thinking about purchasing this for my college student children. Your post is a good nudge. Their website has additional success stories.

http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/

[theKiwi]

The software used on the Macintosh in this case is "Back to my Mac" - a feature of Mac OS X 10.5 for users who also have a .Mac account. It's not designed to do what it did in this case, but for those who have a .Mac account and multiple Macintoshes running Mac OS X 10.5 it is obviously a useful "feature" of Back to my Mac.

Roger

[Mellie]

I think this could have a lot to do with genealogy. Can you imagine a hundred years from now researching your great, great grandpa or uncle & finding the police records and this story. It would also be a look at the technology of 100 years ago and give you a laugh at how crude & simple "our" technology was. We all have a shady character or two so this would help write his story.

[Pat]

What similar software available for the PC?

[Priscilla Paul]

Dick,

Regarding your note below:

Note: I use similar software to access my desktop systems when I am traveling. I can access my computers at home from any hotel room or airport lounge or other location that has an Internet connection. Now I realize it has another use: to catch a thief.

What product do you use and/or recommend? I need to be able to access my 80 year old mother's computer when she has problems. I live in Tennessee and she in Florida.

Thanks,
Priscilla

[Dick Eastman]

There are many such programs. The lady in the article used "Back to My Mac." I use one of the versions of VNC because it works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux. Some other Windows remote control programs include PC-ANywhere, GoToMyPC.com, LogMeIn.com, and others.

- Dick Eastman