Say Cheese Laptop Thieves: Camera Foils Crooks

A Westchester woman who had her laptop stolen didn’t even bother with old fashioned signs like the one pictured here – instead she remotely used the camera in her computer to photograph the culprits. The laptop was stolen from her apartment on April 27th along with $5,000 worth of other electronics.

The Journal News has it that the unnamed woman got a call from a friend on Tuesday asking her if she was online; she wasn’t, but her stolen computer was. So the victim signed onto another computer and used the "Back to My Mac" program to confirm that it was in fact her stolen laptop being used to surf the Web.

She was then able to use the stolen computer's camera to photograph the suspects, two Bronx residents in their ‘20s. She didn’t recognize the men, but her roommate did – they had attended a party at the apartment a few weeks before the burglary. White Plains police later arrested the duo, recovering most the stolen goods and generating another useful plot device for Law & Order screenwriters.

Photo courtesy Bahi P

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on May 9, 2008 11:02 AM

Comments [rss]

lstump

Marvelous work!

ihateallbrokers

if you ahve the serial# anybody with a apple gsx acount can look up the service record and warranty. just ask around.

Rocknrope

Can someone explain how this exactly works? So you can remotely activate a camera on your mac to take pictures of who is in front of it? I'm a PC person, sorry.

west side Michael

Newsday.com has their photo's, real jerks but

what can expect from break in criminals.

It ain't Rififi.

LinkMan

It's even better when the pictures of the thieves are mildly embarrassing.

jaja007

You should have posted the pictures of the two thugs. It's good to see whites and arabs working together. It must make Osama Bin Laden very angry.

AnonEMouse

#10, totally agree

Great story!

wowthatsucks

mental note: find a new roommate with better friends

mobius1ski

check out undercover. it's like lowjack for your mac.

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

Think2wice

I love stories like this. LoJack for high end electronics would work well too. But the use of remote desktops and spy cams for personal vengence is sweet. Also wouldn't a security system be able to triangulate the location of a lost or stolen computer when it goes online? Maaaaybe.

JMH

I gotta be honest, that's pretty clever. Score one for Mac users.

eyekantspel

wow, nice story. Sometimes the good guys win.

VanessaNYC

This is a pretty awesome story. Go geek woman! :)

Albert Sharpton

What if i put piece of duct tape over the camera, and color it with a sharpie marker, it would pretty much render this whole ingenious security system useless, no?

YELLOWFOOT

Smart Girl! when my first mac was stolen back in the dark ages Mac wouldn't even tell me if someone brought it in for service

Muscley Armed Paper Boy

Nice...two dumb Bronx thugs who probably had the computer skills of a 5 year old. Amazing they were able to get online in the first place! Bravo