This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our
Cookies Policy.
Download our app
Man tracks down MacBook thief by using the stolen computer to spy on him
Updated 3.50pm
A CALIFORNIA MAN has managed to track down the man who allegedly stole his MacBook using software installed on the computer which allows secret photographs to be taken.
Joshua Kaufman set up a blog to post pictures of the alleged thief after the MacBook was taken on 21 March 2011. He had installed the theft protection software Hidden, which Gawker says can be activated when the property is stolen.
He captures images of the man using the computer in a sitting room…
…
…in the car
..and, er, in bed
Images via This Guy Has My Macbook
The New York Daily News reports that Kaufman filed a police reports after the MacBook, a Kindle and other items were stolen, but it wasn’t until the blog started gaining attention that the police in Oakland took a proper look a the case.
Yesterday Kaufman posted an update to his blog which read “thanks to the power of the Internet, I have the attention of the Oakland Police, who are tracking this guy right now”. He tweeted:
Kaufman also tweeted that the police had used evidence gleaned from the thief’s emails to track him to a cab service he worked for. He posted a second update yesterday which read:
ABC Tech News host Becky Worley has said that she has contacted both Kaufman and the Oakland Police Department and has confirmed that Kaufman filed a report of the robbery with police after his belongings were stolen, and that a suspect has been arrested. There had been suspicions that the episode may have been a viral campaign initiated by the makers of the Hidden software.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
California Hidden Joshua Kaufman Justice Macbook Spy Stolen Theft