Burglary Victim Remotely Controls His Stolen Laptop

KOMPAS.com - A designer who had his laptop stolen
helped police by using a spy
camera programme to take
pictures and catch the thief
red-handed. Joshua Kaufman
thought he had lost his Apple MacBook when a thief broke
into his apartment and stole
the computer in March. 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. 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. Officers then caught the thief
by arranging for a 'pick up'
from his car firm and arresting
the man when he appeared in
person. Mr Kaufman said he started
using the software once he
realised his laptop had been
stolen when the thief got into
his apartment through an
open window on Monday, March 21. He also lost a Kindle and some
jewellery stuffed into a
computer bag. A few days
after activating the program
he started receiving pictures
revealing of the hapless thief in action. Mr Kaufman said: 'The following
Thursday I started getting
images and location
information. 'I was amazed. I was, like, this
thing actually works!' The thief was captured using
Mr Kaufman's computer to
browse Middle Eastern music
videos, changing the laptop's
account information and even
typing a password to get on Facebook. But his one-man investigation
hit an obstacle when police
told him they didn't have the
resources to follow up his
complaint - despite him telling
officers exactly where the thief was. It was only when he created a
blog - 'This Guy Has My
MacBook' - which generated
support from thousands on
the internet, that police were
forced to revisit the case and eventually catch the thief. Mr Kaufman added: 'I was
excited, honestly - it feels like
the power of the Internet is
on my side. 'They (Oakland Police
department) said, we're really
sorry you fell through the
cracks.' Mr Kaufman said he was told
by Holly Joshi, OPD's director of
public relations: 'We have
about 2400 theft reports that
come in per month, and 3
theft investigators.' After two months of ignoring
Mr Kaufman's information,
Oakland Police finally nabbed
the thief on Tuesday night
after he was caught on
camera. He tweeted shortly after:
'ARRESTED! An Oakland police
officer just called me to let me
know that they arrested the
guy in my photos! BOOYA!' Later, he tweeted: 'This just in:
MacBook acquired by the OPD!
The officer was so kind on the
phone: "It's these kinds of
partnerships that make things
happen".'