Undercover theft prevention

[rogerhoward at rogerroger.org]

On Nov 14, 2006, at 9:53 PM, David Cake wrote:

> At 8:30 AM -0800 14/11/06, Roger Howard wrote:
>> On Tue, November 14, 2006 5:49 am, Matt Johnston wrote:
>>>
>>>  On 14 Nov 2006, at 13:09, Jared Earle wrote:
>>>
>>>>  On 11/14/06, Matt Johnston <pelorus at mac.com> wrote:
>>>>>  Sorry, I thought that laptop theft was a 'business' and people  
>>>>> who do
>>>>>  it were able to use Google?
>>>>
>>>>  Every laptop theft I've dealt with was by an opportunist thief.
>>>
>>>  Whereas my experience has been almost the opposite. Professional
>>>  thieving bastards taking an opportunity.
>>
>> Just because they're professional doesn't mean they are smart or  
>> careful.
>> The kid I posted about (see previous message) is still running his  
>> scam as
>> no one - not Apple, LAPD, FBI, etc - would bother even after  
>> having all
>> their work done for them (I tracked this kid down to his doorstep,  
>> with
>> every bit documented).
>
> 	When I had a laptop stolen, and a nearly identical (including  
> failing screen problems) model appeared on ebay in a different  
> state, along with a couple of dozen random laptops and cell phones,  
> the Sydney police where only to happy to send two undercovers to  
> pick it up (Given that I'd done all the work for them).
> 	Sadly, it turned out the laptop for sale WAS stolen, but wasn't  
> mine. Happy ending for the cops, but not for me :-(

Oh, mine was provably and obviously mine (the most obvious, but  
hardly sole, bit of evidence there being the shot of my desktop with  
my name on it on the eBay listing!). I had a complete dossier on the  
thief; I had a statement from the person who bought it from him. I  
had EBay/PayPal transaction records, I figured out the kid worked for  
the shipping store I dropped the package off at. I had his home  
address, AIM screenname, EBay transaction history showing he was  
obviously doing this professionally, heck I even had his license  
plate, girlfriends name, and class schedule for next semester. LAPD  
wouldn't do anything for me since the machine was no longer mine -  
Apple was in process of providing a replacement, and Apple was only  
mildly interested in pursuing him, but never ended up following up.  
FBI and Secret Service were totally disinterested, of course - I  
tried playing the identity theft card (nonsense, the machine was  
pretty much empty, had nothing sensitive on it). So in the end, the  
guy who bought my machine got to keep it (he did send the harddisk  
back to Apple, and got a nice scare as he was military and thought he  
was going to get prosecuted for receiving stolen goods), the thief  
got to keep the $800 he got for a beat up 12" PowerBook, and I got a  
brand new machine. Oh, and the local Russian mafia crew he's part of  
got to keep doing what they do, and I made sure I never go back to  
that store.