
Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address. - tmbeihl
My buddy and I are driving across Canada. As we are college students, we have been sleeping in campgrounds or our car to save money. Last night, we accidently spilled gas in our car and decided to spend the night in a hotel. About two hours ago, somebody broke the window of our car and stole his laptop and my camera. I know his mail servers admin and I have two IP addresses that have connected to his mail account since we went to bed last night. I also have access to the hotels wifi router. Any idea what I should do? I have reason to believe that the computer is still on the premises. The police were called over an hour ago and still haven't come yet.
======
uptown
The police will likely be pretty limited in what they're able to do. I suspect
they'll have you file a police report, and then leave. Here's what I'd do ...
and the success of this tactic will probably depend on how large the hotel is,
and how helpful whomever you're dealing with wants to be.

1\. See if you can get an idea from the hotel about how many of the rooms are
occupied, and if it's a small number see if it's possible to get that list.

2\. Give each person in housekeeping $10, and ask them to tell you if they see
any of your stuff in the rooms they're cleaning.

3\. Focus on rooms with the do-not-disturb signs hung up if it's a limited
number. You know that somebody is staying on those rooms, and that they prefer
privacy. While this doesn't mean they took your stuff, it helps locate the
rooms with patrons.

4\. Write down the license plates of the cars in the lot (if it's not an
overwhelming number). If there's one way for vehicles to leave the property,
you could wait by the exit and ask drivers as they leave if they know
anything. If the driver stops, you'll get a read on their response. You can
also write down license plates based on how drivers handle this (whether they
stop, how they react, etc.) and cross-reference this against the ones you
recorded from the parking lot.

5\. Check the trash. Sometimes people steal things, get scared, then dump
whatever they've stolen.

Good luck to you. The odds aren't in your favor.

~~~
algorias
Emphasis on: The odds aren't in your favor.

------
daeken
If ssh is running on it, redirect all web traffic to a page prompting them for
their room number, to "get on the hotel wifi".

Edit: Assuming you can find it on the network, that is. Good luck; hope you
can get it back.

~~~
grandalf
that's brilliant!

------
deutronium
Try accessing a site such as <http://www.whatismyip.com/> via the wifi router,
to see if the external IP of the hotel router matches the one you've found
connecting to your mail server. In an attempt to confirm whether its likely
the laptop is in the hotel.

You could also try a tool that maps an IP to location e.g.
<http://www.geoiptool.com/> \- these aren't particularly accurate too be
honest

Edit: If you know the Laptop is running a server e.g. SSH you could try
scanning the network for the local IP of the laptop with nmap.

e.g. nmap -A 192.168.1.*

(With the '-A' option, machines will also attempt to be fingerprinted, to
determine their OS etc, to start with it may be better running without '-A' as
it takes a fair bit longer)

------
pmikal
I recently recovered a laptop because I had installed Prey on it
(<http://preyproject.com/>). It's free, sends you the IP, a webcam snap,
desktop grab and attempts a geo-location.

I also always install Microsoft's Live Mesh on my machines, which is helpful
for remote login if one has gone missing. Free. (<https://www.mesh.com/>)

~~~
uptown
Great suggestion with Prey. For the future, another idea might be to use
Dropbox to deliver a payload that gets executed upon bootup. This would give
you the ability to deploy and execute software that might help you locate your
stolen equipment. Of course you run the risk of some malicious software being
auto-executed if the folders you sync from become compromised, so that's
something to weigh when considering this option.

------
johngalt
The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked
into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm
from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a
new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops.

We had him on camera, multiple witnesses. Our security found the ebay account
where they were being sold and even tricked the guy into providing his
address. We provided this to the police. All they would have had to do is go
arrest him, but they wouldn't lift a finger.

Conversely, I worked for a bank for a year. And one night the ATM alarm was
accidentally tripped, and the police where there in minutes with guns out.

The ATM only had about $10K in it, and the fourteen laptops represented a loss
of $30k.

Q: So why was there response so much more aggressive for the ATM?

A: The banks pay big $$ to the local police departments to get that kind of
response.

~~~
dnsworks
"The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked
into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm
from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a
new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops."

The guy who stole these 14 laptops should get arrested, go to prison, then
come out and become a best selling author on the topic of Social Engineering
(which means he'll sell 1,000 copies, but still, a good use of his craft).

That being said, did it really represent a gross loss of $30k? A $2k laptop is
worth $1,200 the moment you open the box. Were they old laptops? Mostly
depreciated? $10k in an ATM is always worth $10k.

~~~
johngalt
RE: Social Engineering -> these were software developers that gave up their
laptops btw, not just random business users. So he must have had a good pitch.

The laptops were all less than a year old. But you could easily argue the loss
value was less than their purchase value. However we still had to spend $30K
to replace them all.

The data on the laptops also wasn't worthless. Thankfully the guy was just an
ebay/thief and not interested in selling our sourcecode.

~~~
dnsworks
If he hadn't, well you would have learned the hard way to have a strong laptop
encryption policy, wouldn't you have?

------
gregschlom
Well, that won't help in your case, but I wanted to share this story: last
friday, my laptop was stolen in Paris. I was doomed. 15 minutes later, my
mobile phone rang : some guys spotted the thief while he was trying to rob
other people. The guys stopped him and got all the stolen stuff. They opened
my laptop bag and found a little paper with my name and phone number that I
had put there __TEN __years ago, when I purchased the bag.

So I can say that it's definetely worth putting your name and number on a
paper card in your laptop bag.

------
grandalf
You should avoid getting into direct conflict with the thief.

I suggest putting up signs offering a $200 cash no questions asked reward if
the laptop is returned to the hotel front desk. Perhaps hotel management can
knock on doors for you announcing the reward.

If you want to then take the laptop to the police and have it dusted for
fingerprints that is your decision.

Most petty thieves just want cash and if the laptop isn't already sold it will
probably be sold in the next day or two for $200 or less in cash.

------
ck2
Real life cops aren't like TV.

They might take a report but won't spend an ounce of energy looking otherwise,
even if you have the IP.

Then again it's Canada so maybe they are less lazy/corrupt than US cops.

~~~
mcknz
Sure there are lazy cops, but it's more of a risk/reward analysis. There's
such a small chance of recovering the laptop, and since no violence involved,
it's not worth the effort when the loss is relatively small, and there are
crimes of greater consequence to respond to and resolve.

~~~
ck2
Right, because so many greater crimes are given any effort instead.

Let's be more realistic and compare them to the slackers found at every kind
job. But now imagine those slackers with supremely dangerous amounts of
authority that are constantly abused and no-one can challenge, co-workers that
will cover their ass no matter how big the lie, really good pay, really good
benefits, incredible overtime pay, insane early retirement pay (while they
work other jobs) and it's nearly impossible to be fired once hired.

~~~
mcknz
Now who's describing the cops on TV? :)

I agree there are some real pricks out there -- only trying to say that lack
of effort on a stolen laptop is not a good test case for laziness....

------
nathanb
I'm assuming that the computer is running Windows and that you don't have
something useful like an sshd, telnetd, or VNC client running on it. The IP
address is only useful if you can connect to the computer in some way.

The one thing you know is that the mail reader is still running. Working on
the assumption that it can't hurt, maybe craft a mail to the account to either
fool the thief into installing software like Prey discussed on other comments
here or to fool the thief into telling you where he or she is.

For the first one, just send out a mail saying something like "Click this link
to install HOT VIRTUAL PORN". Make it look like the average spam mail (though
not spammy enough to get filtered). Obviously you would need to repackage the
Prey installer as some sort of porn software installer, which may be easy or
hard depending on how silent the original installer is.

For the second one, post a Craigslist or equivalent ad offering to buy a
laptop computer like your friend's. Then send a mail to your friend's account
as yourself saying "hey, I saw this ad and I know you're looking to unload
that old laptop of yours, so thought you would be interested".

If people fall for Nigerian 419 scammers, maybe your thief will fall for this.
Assuming he's reading your e-mail.

------
HeyLaughingBoy
Have you talked to the hotel manager? The parking lot is probably their
property and they are responsible for what happens in it.

Alternatively, do you have full coverage on your car? If so, just call your
insurance company and tell them what happened; they'll probably work something
out with the hotel.

Other ideas: (I think) some credit cards cover theft if you use them for
travel expenses and stuff is stolen while travelling.

The last thing you should be doing is tracking the down the items and trying
to recover them yourself by force.

------
mattmichielsen
This reminds me of when my friend's fairly high-end laptop was stolen from a
party at his house. This was back in my wardriving days, so we went out
several times looking for the MAC address of the wifi card. We didn't end up
finding it though, and his parents' homeowners insurance replaced it.

If you have the MAC address and think it is still in the local area, you can
definitely use a tool like kismet to look for it.

------
ewoodh2o
This really sucks. I had something similar happen last December, except the
laptop was stolen out of a locked hotel room. Not a shady place
either...skyrise elevator-access place downtown in a big US city.

Hotel was of little help, and police don't do much except write down the S/N
and alert the local pawn shops not to buy the machine.

Best bet is homeowner's or renter's insurance. Most policies will cover
something like this. If you're in school, your (his) parents' coverage usually
extends to cover your belongings. I have the basic $15/mo type coverage from
State Farm - the kind that reduces your car insurance payment by more than
$15/mo under their multi-policy discount - and they replaced my 3 year old MBP
no-questions-asked.

------
mcknz
I agree with avoiding contact with the thief -- it's tempting to try some
advanced tech solution, but lots can go wrong, including accusing innocent
people.

Have you talked to the hotel staff? I'm sure theft is something they are used
to dealing with. If no response from them, maybe you could call the hotel
corporate HQ. It's a long shot, but maybe the hotel can reimburse through
insurance. Also if you have a credit card sometimes they will provide limited
travel insurance.

------
gte910h
Stealing something that someone has stolen from you is theft in many
jurisdictions in the US. Make sure you involve the police, as I suspect the
same is true in Canada.

~~~
Zak
[citation needed]

A number of things you could do to facilitate recovering the property, such as
entering someone else's hotel room without permission are illegal, though a
defense of necessity might be available. I've never heard of it being a crime
to take back the property itself.

------
blumer
If you think you may have the IP address, is there any chance that whatever OS
you have running on it will let you discretely log in remotely? Then you can
drop some sort of homing beacon on for now so that if the criminal moves
(likely, given it's a hotel, of course), you're not SOL.

~~~
kordless
Or make it make a sound like you are getting email every 30 seconds or so.
Then go from door to door listening for it.

------
MIGUELITO
Alo

------
dnsworks
"You left your Laptop and your Camera in in a car? Really? Unattended? And it
got stolen? Sucks to be you, I hope you had insurance!"

That's about what I would expect a police officer to say. At least, that's
what they say here in San Francisco. Then you file a report, and make an
insurance claim. Do you have a friend at the ISP they use who could sort
through some logs for you so that you could go and retrieve it yourself?
That's probably your best bet for getting your property back, and that's quite
the long shot.

------
Jim_Neath
Why did you leave the equipment in the car?

~~~
blumer
While something to consider later, this is completely unhelpful and beside the
point right now.

