Photos from stolen laptop lead to man’s arrest
His efforts were successful and the computer was returned Wednesday – the latest example of people, not police, using technological tools to help find their own stolen property such as cars, cell phones and digital cameras.
It helped that just before the laptop was stolen, he had installed theft-tracking software.
The images from that software that arrived in his inbox were grainy, low-lit and intimate: a man curled up on a couch, sound asleep; the same man propped up against pillows on a bed, shirtless.
Kaufman took the images to police, who did not help him. So he went online, publishing the pictures on Twitter and in a blog titled “This Guy Has My MacBook.”
“People who followed me on Twitter retweeted it. It got picked up by social media and the press. It went super viral,” he said. On the same day that he posted his website on Twitter, police came calling.
StoriesIn PicturesVideosRate This Story
Your Rating Overall Rating Reader Comments
Post a CommentPolice on Tuesday arrested a 27-year-old cab driver, Muthanna Aldebashi.
Kaufman had just moved to a new apartment in Oakland when a burglar broke in, taking the laptop, a bag, an electronic book reader, and a bottle of gin on March 21. He activated theft-tracking software, which began sending photos taken by the computer’s built-in camera of the unauthorized user three days later.
“I wasn’t sure if it would work because I never tested it before,” he said. Most of the images “were honestly really boring photos – people staring into the screen. But some were definitely more humorous.”
Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125 11.6-Inch Laptop
The Latest Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125 LED TruBrite 11.6-Inch Laptop with 11.6-inch screen is Toshiba’s thinnest and lightest Satellite model yet, offering the performance, flexibility and functionality you expect in a standard-sized laptop but in a highly portable and efficient package. Featuring a power-efficient AMD mobile processor and Windows 7, the T115D powers up quickly from standby mode and provides energy saving enhancements that deliver up to 6 hours of battery life. It’s also been given a number of comfort-driven, eco-focused design elements that are capped by the stunningly stylish Fusion finish in Nova Black.