
This Guy Has My MacBook - bkaid
http://thisguyhasmymacbook.tumblr.com/
======
SeoxyS
There's something very very wrong with the city of Oakland. I lived there for
one year, before moving to SF and while everybody told me I should constantly
be watching my back, I mostly ignored it and was fine. But after I moved to
SF, I found myself in Oakland for a party and sure enough, with a couple
friends, I got myself mugged at gunpoint by three scary-looking local
gangsters.

The scary part, though, is the cops' handling of the situation. Luckily for
me, I was quick enough to react and hide away my most important item, my
iPhone 4. As soon as they were gone (within 30s) I called the cops, and soon
thereafter we had 5 squad cars show up. They interrogated us and made us write
statements, but would not send a car after the suspects, who had fled in a
direction we had indicated to them. After telling us there's no chance they'd
recover our stolen stuff, they took off. We asked for a ride back to the bart
station, to the police station, _anywhere_ (it was night in a shady part of
Oakland. We had nothing… no money for a cab, and we sure as hell didn't want
to walk alone around Oakland.) They just refused, saying they had "other shit
to do" and left.

The fact that I got mugged at gunpoint in Oakland comes as no surprise to me—I
shouldn't have been there in the first place. However, the police's blatant
incompetence came as a terrifying shock.

~~~
jcampbell1
Move to New York. I was smoking on my fire escape, and saw a dude break a car
window and steal a shopping bag out of the back seat. I called the police,
they got the description from me over the phone, and the cops showed up in a
car in around 90 seconds. They then asked me to get in the car and we drove
around looking for the guy, found him, and they arrested him, and returned the
car owners stuff. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.

~~~
regomodo
Not US but Exeter, England. Long, rambling, poorly structured story ahead.
TL/DR, bike gets thieved a couple times and police were useless. Vigilantism
sometimes works.

My motorbike was stolen the 12hrs before I went sitting in a hedge in a field
where I found some tyre tracks in some mud (nobody sensible would have a
trials tire on a chicken chaser) of my bike earlier that day ( skipped classes
at my EE uni course). After ~4hrs sitting in the cold and dark I hear the bike
near to the field and set after it and try to pull the thief off as he goes
around a roundabout (he just wobbled into the curb and goes off and I get
flung to the ground). I phone the police telling them where my bike is ( I had
reported the theft hours ago). I chase after the guy and he drops it somewhere
(it went quiet) so I phone for my housemates only for 1 to drive home because
he "doesn't like this one bit". I spent 20minutes waiting for the police only
for me and a friend to fail at tackling the guy off the bike when he comes
back and rides off.

I go looking for the bike with a friend (I hear it stop a long way off
somewhere in a council estate) and interrogate one of the thief's friend who
tried to follow the thief. Waste of time, it turned out the friend had put
fake plates on his scooter. My friend miraculously spots my bike in a dark
alley and we push it home. Then 3 fucking police cars turn up almost an hour
after I tell them and I convince them I phoned them but I have nothing on me
(I was certain I was at least going to get beaten up that night) so I get put
in the cop car and taken home to get ID. Then they are happy that I wasn't the
thief.

That was the 2nd time my bike got stolen.

1st time it was in a locked garage blocked by a locked car (smashed the window
of the car to release handbrake and crowbarred the garage door and cut the
lock. A few years later they torched the both and my bike along with my stuff
stored in it [i was at uni]). Usual stuff first, police come down, take info
and tell me they wont be able to find it. I bunk off school and go riding
around on my mountainbike checking out all the council estates and woods near
my home (Plymouth, England). Sure enough I hear it come down a path and see 2
people on it. I throw my mountainbike in front of them and they came crashing
down and I banzai charge at them screaming. One of them runs for his life and
the other just hung around claiming he didn't nick it (was offered a "go") and
wanted compensation for damaging his "trackies". I believe him though as I had
an inkling as to who knicked it. I ride out of the woods away from home with
the mangled bicycle on my lap and I get my dad to come by to pick it
up(<http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnobleuk/5783020123/>), clear the woods
between me and home and then I ride back. Police's response when I tell them I
retrieved my bike back "oh, good for you."

For some unknown reason this heap of a bike got stolen 3 times. The 3rd time I
gave up only for the police find it dragged 50meters away from my home where
someone tried to use bolt-cutters on it. The police then tried to charge me
£250 for retrieval fees. I slipped off from work to avoid that scam.

~~~
msredmond
My friend had his bike stolen in Long Beach, Ca. Decided to chase after the
(very young) teenagers who took it. Got shot and killed.

Just FYI that vigilantism really isn't the way to go -- you just don't know
what can happen.

~~~
jrockway
This is true of anything.

People die in car accidents. People die in plane crashes. People die in Space
Shuttle crashes. People die from heart disease. People slip and fall in the
shower and then die. People die for no reason at all.

Some day, you will die. If you try to prevent yourself from dying, you will
fail.

~~~
notJim
Actually, since you can only fail once, the best way to improve your success
rate is to try to keep from dying as frequently as possible.

------
alanl
So this happened to me in Feb.

I had my MBP taken with <http://preyproject.com/> installed. Now I live
outside the US , (in Ireland) and while the police where helpful & curious
about how the tech worked, they just did not do anything, even though I got a
photo of the guy, his first name and geo location of his apartment block in
the first week.

So 3 months later, and although I'm still watching the guy watching porn on my
laptop, I have built up a substantial profile of him, through persistent
(obsessive according to my girlfriend) tracking.

So just this week I passed on the following details to the cops \- fullname \-
email \- phone number \- postal address \- bank account no \- online betting
account no \- lots of photos of him and his flatmates/friends.

They were kinda shocked I was still on the case, but said they will dispatch
someone to go pick up the laptop this week.

So my advice; if you stick with it, and hand them the case on a plate it might
work out.

~~~
jessedhillon
Please post a writeup of your experience if/when this is resolved, and submit
it to HN.

~~~
bluesmoon
Why not watch the DEFCON video here:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTFP6BYXAE>

This is how one hacker got his computer back from a thief after tracking him
for a few years.

------
JacobAldridge
If some guy had my MacBook, and I did this, I would generally include details
like, I don't know, my name and contact email or phone number. You know, so
the Mayor's office or Police Department PR people could reach out to me, or
others might help me ("hey - that's Joe from Flat 3") retrieve it.

Unless, this guy had my MacBook in a viral ad campaign that is.

Edit: Here's the owner of the MacBook <http://twitter.com/#!/jmk> He seems
real, but he does work for an agency that specialises in interactive ad
campaigns.

~~~
ibejoeb
FTA:

> I reported the crime to the police

It's typically frowned upon, in a manner of speaking, to file false reports.
This would be a terribly stupid campaign.

edit: I suppose he could be lying about filing. Don't know if that's a
thing...

~~~
pavel_lishin
Lying? Oh yeah, they came out with it last year. I've been having some limited
success with it.

~~~
brudgers
Sure you have, Cretan.

[edit: only on hacker news would it be necessary to post a link:
[<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimenides_paradox>]

~~~
pavel_lishin
For a second, I thought you were just doing a really terrible, misspelled job
of insulting me :P

------
raganwald
I hate to be the Devil's advocate in a case involving a stolen laptop (I
regard stealing my laptop as a crime even lower than stealing my bicycle), but
I'm more than a little troubled by the idea of plastering someone's face and
private life (such as the inside of their home) on the Internet before they
have been convicted of a crime.

Sure, we could say "Yeah, but this software let the blog author see them
absconding with the laptop," but debating the evidence is conducting a trial
of sorts, without giving the accused the benefit of a chance to cross-examine
their accusers and present their side of the story.

I'm very comfortable with the idea of using software like this to gather
evidence, and I'm very comfortable with criticizing the police for failing to
act, but I'm not comfortable with publishing these pictures.

~~~
3pt14159
Wow, that's outlandish. For some perspective this guy's hands would have been
_cut off_ in Saudi Arabia. At the end of the day (assuming this isn't some
fake ad campaign) dude lost his right to privacy when he stole the laptop. The
victim has a right to remotely control his property, especially when it has
been stolen.

As for a crime lower than stealing my bicycle: That's crazy. Even if you have
a bicycle worth more than your laptop, the loss of time and possible identity
theft that could happen with a lost laptop more than outweighs the financial
loss of either.

~~~
raganwald
You see where you and I are coming from different places? My understanding is
that in Saudi Arabia, the thief's hands would be cut off _after a trial_.
Which is my point. I did not question someone remotely controlling their
property. I questioned someone publishing certain pictures in a blog
regardless of how they obtained them.

Now onto a subjective matter. A bicycle is a highly personal item for many
people. It may not involve identity theft, but for some people it involves a
loss of freedom and mobility that can't be replaced easily. My current bicycle
has been highly personalized for my use. Having it stolen would be like having
a bit of my soul stolen.

If you don't feel the same way about your bike, I quite understand.

UPDATE:

You said that "The dude lost his right to privacy when he stole a laptop." Did
you notice what you just did? _You convicted someone of an offence without
trying them in a court of law._ If we were in a jurisdiction where murder is a
capital offence, you could use exactly the same logic for lynching and hanging
a man without bothering to try him. He lost his right to life when he
murdered, and we know he murdered, so fetch a rope and a horse.

Now some (strawman alert) might say that the evidence is overwhelming. Well,
where do we draw the line? What's the rule for "We don't need a trial?"
Pictures on the Internet? Eyewitness accounts?? Confessions? All of these have
been proved unreliable in the past, _which is why we have trials._

~~~
djackson
1\. Person A has a laptop

2\. Person A no longer has a laptop. Person A did not sell or give away this
laptop. The laptop was stolen.

3\. Person B now has the missing laptop.

Conclusion: Person B is in possession of a stolen laptop.

~~~
raganwald
This is fine line or argument, but don't you think it belongs in a courtroom,
being made to a jury that has been shown all of the evidence and who will also
hear the accused make his own arguments for his innocence?

~~~
rosser
Isn't possession of stolen property _prima facie_ proof of guilt of ...
possession of stolen property?

~~~
Periodic
Is buying stolen property, which you seller does not tell you is stolen, over
Craig's List equivalent to stealing the item? Should the buyer be jailed?

------
thematt
For a free and open-source alternative to Hidden, try:
<http://preyproject.com/>

It supports all the major OS's, including phones.

~~~
djhworld
Hey thanks man, just installed it now. Seems like a neat bit of software!

~~~
1amzave
A word of warning on Prey -- I looked into it myself and last I checked, it
stores your email password unencrypted in a plain text file in your
filesystem. Better still, a comment in the file describes it as "base64
encrypted". Sure, your average laptop thief is probably too clueless to run
the trivial command to "decrypt" it, but it still strikes me as _highly_
irresponsible of the developer.

That alone was plenty to convince me not to install it.

EDIT: it still does: <https://github.com/tomas/prey/blob/master/config#L44>

~~~
there
aside from mac os which has an encrypted keychain, how do you expect a
password to be stored that is used by open source software, which has to be
accessible by software that cannot prompt the user for a password?

~~~
orborde
You're right. To me, it's not their use of (effectively) plaintext that is
worrisome. It's that the developer characterizes base64 as "encryption", which
tells me that they don't even understand the security implications. As an
example of a non-worrying response, here's Pidgin's documentation on their
choice not to encrypt passwords:
<http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/PlainTextPasswords>

~~~
tomaspollak
"Having our passwords in plaintext is more secure than obfuscating them
precisely because, when a user is not misled by a false sense of security, he
is likely to use the software in a more secure manner."

I must say I don't agree with the Pidgin devs. They think that the user will
use the software in a more secure manner because they _assume_ he's aware that
the password is stored in cleartext.

That may be true on 1% of the cases. But the other 99% of the people probably
don't have a clue, and they wouldn't even know where to find the accounts.xml
file in the first place.

------
mbateman
Seems that this is the guy whose laptop was stolen: <http://unraveled.com/>

Nothing about him working for whoever makes the Hidden app, though it's hard
to find info about exactly who makes that app on their web page. I still can't
tell if it's legit.

EDIT: He works for ExactTarget (<http://www.exacttarget.com/>) which is a
marketing firm that does social media stuff among other things. Seems pretty
likely to be an ad for the app. Or a huge coincidence.

~~~
flyosity
I posted up above: this is not a joke. I've known Josh for a long, long time
and this situation actually happened (or, is happening). He's not a marketer,
he's a very well-known interaction designer that's been in and around the web
design community since 2003. One of the nicest guys out there.

~~~
mbateman
Okay, I believe you. Probably being a marketer also made him write the tumblr
description like marketing copy, which is part of what makes it seem fishy.

------
oasisbob
A nice free alternative to Hidden: <http://preyproject.com/>

------
kloncks
So many context clues in the pictures.

Guy's probably Muslim, for example. Looks like he might be of Arab descent.
(Third pic has "Muhammed" and "Allah" on the wall written and framed in
Arabic).

~~~
pknerd
Does his religion matter or are you saying that non-Muslims in US never stole
anything?

~~~
kloncks
I'm both Egyptian and speak Arabic. No racism here.

In telling the police more about the identity of this individual (who might be
the thief or someone who bought the product from the thief), gathering any
additional details can be important.

That's all. This is like an eyewitness report. Sorry if it seemed malicious.

------
Apocryphon
Was anyone else reminded of this Defcon video (Don't Mess with a Hacker's
Machine)?

<http://goo.gl/7y6mD>

------
vizzah
hmm.. for some reason it feels like a viral ad for that Hidden app.

~~~
twistedanimator
Yeah, why would he publish the guy's face, but blur out his google account
info? It smells like an ad to me as well.

~~~
phxrsng
Seems to me it could be he doesn't want anyone emailing the guy and tipping
him off that the owner knows who has it and that the app is tracking the
laptop until it can be recovered.

Its unlikely that any of the guys friends read HN, but its not that unlikely
that some idiot seeing the blog post would send some email to the guy that
would alert him.

------
TamDenholm
The reason this makes me (and others by the looks of it) suspicious that this
is a well made ad for the app, is that if it shows where the macbook is, why
not just go get it, i certainly would, with a couple of my larger friends.

~~~
albedoa
That is illegal in many jurisdictions. He should let the police handle it.

~~~
jemfinch
In what jurisdictions is it illegal to recover your own stolen property?

~~~
hugh3
Depends exactly how you do it.

All in all, if you know where he is it's much safer to let the cops handle it.
So what if you do sort it out with a few of your "larger friends"? He's
probably got larger friends too, and he knows where you live.

------
44Aman
What I don't get about these programs (for desktops/laptops) is...do you guys
have passwords on your user accounts? And if so, they must have somehow
cracked them to get access.

In that case, I know if I was going to steal a laptop, the first thing I'd do
is format it. Do any of the programs remain after a hard disk wipe?

Also, for those using the Prey panel - why does it have an option to save your
password? If you're still logged in when the thief makes off with your laptop,
and he has any knowledge of these kind of programs, they'll just log in and
deactivate your account or change settings.

~~~
sorbus
> What I don't get about these programs (for desktops/laptops) is...do you
> guys have passwords on your user accounts? And if so, they must have somehow
> cracked them to get access.

> In that case, I know if I was going to steal a laptop, the first thing I'd
> do is format it. Do any of the programs remain after a hard disk wipe?

I have a non-passworded guest account specifically for that purpose. If
someone steals my laptop, I want them to be able to use it so that Prey can
get me information. Going along with that, my BIOS is passworded and won't
boot off anything but the hard drive, so that the only way to wipe the drive
is physically removing it. I'm counting on any thief not being technically
sophisticated to go that far, and it also gives my information a bit more
security (in theory it stops a thief from running something like Orphcrack to
get my account's password).

I don't believe that any of these programs will persist after the hard drive
is wiped or replaced, though I have heard of manufacturer-provided solutions
which live in ROM and install themselves into the operating system
automatically (I'm probably getting some details wrong).

> Also, for those using the Prey panel - why does it have an option to save
> your password?

Yeah, the "Remember me" checkbox is really weird (I'm assuming that that's
what you're talking about). I suppose that it makes life more convenient for
some people, if they're using a desktop or suchlike to manage other devices.
Or maybe it's just something that the developers reflexively included.

------
pavel_lishin
I wish Hidden's site had more information. I don't want to pay until I can
find out more - like, can I schedule how often the system takes screenshots
and photos with the camera? Will it store screenshots and try to do a bulk
upload if the laptop isn't online at the time of screenshot? Does it run even
if nobody is logged in? etc., etc.

~~~
matthavener
<http://preyproject.com/> has a little more information, plus you can try it
for free.

------
noonespecial
Just suggest that you might possibly have seen some kind of green/white stuff
in a little baggie on the table in one of the pictures. The cops will be there
in 10 minutes.

------
gsivil
Does really the HN community find this story interesting? I wish I knew the
psychological reasons behind that massive upvoting

~~~
taphangum
Probably just to help this guy out and get his laptop back from that douchebag

------
thepumpkin1979
Today is May 31, the MacBook was stolen on March 21... enough days to _sell_
the thing to someone else, don't you think?

------
meric
Seems like the guy has his mac back. [http://www.smh.com.au/digital-
life/computers/police-nab-lapt...](http://www.smh.com.au/digital-
life/computers/police-nab-laptop-thief-exposed-by-hidden-security-camera-
app-20110602-1fhag.html)

------
rtrunck
<https://twitter.com/jmk/status/75766707834200064>

Arrested

------
mbateman
Why did he blur out the guy's google username?

~~~
ltamake
I have no idea. Maybe he thinks the guy deserves /some/ privacy (as this gets
spread, people would be tempted to spam the e-mail). :P

~~~
michaels0620
More likely that he wouldn't want someone emailing the person telling him that
he is being tracked.

~~~
jessedhillon
Also: he may not be the thief, just someone who bought from the thief and
perhaps did not know it was stolen.

------
jlgosse
I enjoy how the alleged "stolen" macbook pro has absolutely nothing on the
dock. This story is becoming less and less realistic and more and more like a
plug of "Hidden".

~~~
akronim
Isn't that just the default dock? i.e. in the screenshot the guy has just
created a new account for himself, and is deleting the original owner's
account?

------
ajju
It's got to be really frustrating, knowing where your laptop is but not being
able to have the police get it.

Any lawyers want to chime in on whether the owner has a right to reclaim his
property legally? May be if it is in plain sight in the public?

~~~
pavel_lishin
If you steal it back, how would the original thief prove anything was taken?

~~~
rdl
I think the issue is that other crimes might end up happening during the
recovery of the macbook, such as assault, battery, discharge of firearms
within city limits, theft of kidneys, abuse of rented power sanders, etc.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Now I kind of want to steal something of yours.

------
kizel
This is unbelievable. Great app...I wish there was something like this for my
bike, but whatever "that" would be, would probably get stolen.

------
iantimothy
A question. Is there a way for anyone to know their laptop is taking photos of
them? Be it a Mac or a PC. And is there a way to know if my computer is
transmitting those images. I wonder whether such apps can be installed by
malicious individuals to spy on people.

------
calbear81
This is the guy's Twitter account: <https://twitter.com/#!/jmk>

I don't think it's a fake. He works for ExactTarget, an e-mail marketing
services company.

~~~
pavel_lishin
So, you don't think that a story that looks suspiciously like marketing is a
piece of marketing ... because the guy that runs it works for a marketing
firm?

~~~
calbear81
No, I don't think it looks like marketing because he's an interaction designer
who doesn't seem like he has anything to do with the Hidden app besides being
a user. If you look at his twitter feed, he has tweeted about trying to get
the laptop back since April (check-in at Oakland police station). What makes
you think this is marketing vs. a guy who has no other avenues to take besides
asking the internet if they have seen/know who this person is?

~~~
pavel_lishin
Because he's specifically erased identifiable information about this guy,
specifically his google account.

~~~
reid
I'd do the same thing, since I wouldn't want him to dump my computer after
realizing he's being tracked from tips sent to his GMail account by random
internet folks.

Sure, we have his photograph, but we can't contact the guy nor do we know his
identity... only very few people would know that and hopefully they mean well.

------
lukejduncan
Why post the guys picture but blur out his google account info?

------
stretchwithme
Glad to hear this guy has been caught.

    
    
      http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/06/01/6763712-police-arrest-macbook-thief-caught-on-camera-by-victim

------
mgh2
QUESTION: If I was a guy that bought a second hand Mac, how can I make sure
that I was not being watched? This issues a new privacy concern too.

~~~
alxp
Don't buy anything second-hand unless they can show the proof-of-purchase so
you know you're not buying a hot item. This isn't new advice.

------
bkhl
Good to know that OPD has arrested the bastard. :)

------
bbg
When you've activated the Hidden app, and the computer is taking pictures,
does the little green light turn on when the camera is on?

~~~
sorbus
I've always heard that the status LED is hardwired into the webcam, so that
there is absolutely no way for software to prevent it from turning on when the
webcam is active. So yes. It would probably be a very brief flash, though.

------
danielsiders
Someone suggested posting the car image on vwvortex or a similar car forum to
have the users identify the make, model, and year

~~~
mirkules
Judging from the car's leather interior, it looks like an older-model
midrange-or-luxury sedan. Lighter leather with that texture usually cannot be
found on lower-end vehicles. The rear window exhibits low visibility and the
rear seat has a pop-out armrest. Furthermore, you'll notice that the rear seat
does not have an adjustable headrest, but is fixed (an indication it's
probably not a VW). The seat belt clip also looks kind of unusual, but I can't
make a good guess what this car would be (maybe a 90's Mazda 626?)

------
jhermsmeyer
I'm curious if there is anything like this available for the iPad 2. Does
anyone know?

~~~
gavingmiller
I've used it before for the iPhone and it works great:
<http://www.apple.com/ipad/built-in-apps/find-my-ipad.html>

Just be sure to setup a password to lock the device, otherwise a thief can
just turn it off.

------
equilibrium
showcased and most read article on BBC news. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-
us-canada-13624265>

------
savramescu
It looks like he got it back. That's nice to hear in the end.

------
Jun8
Are there any open source alternatives to the Hidden app?

~~~
Super_Jambo
preyproject

------
rumblestrut
Great story! I'll have to check out Hidden now.

------
run4yourlives
Brought to you by Flipcode Ltd., the makers of Hidden.

(I don't know that for sure, but it certainly seems that way, and there are
very few details on the site, particularly a disclosure.)

------
ez77
How does this Hidden app work? Any ideas?

------
yread
Since when is stolen computer hacker news? A clever marketing campaign on the
other hand would be of course quite an interesting submission

------
pnathan
Very clever use of technology.

------
georgieporgie
_I reported the crime to the police and even told them where it was, but they
can't help me due to lack of resources._

They must be too busy installing illegal exhaust systems on their police
Harleys ([http://motorcycles.about.com/b/2008/06/16/oakland-
motorcycle...](http://motorcycles.about.com/b/2008/06/16/oakland-motorcycle-
cops-stir-controversy-with-loud-pipes.htm)).

Sorry to be off-topic. As a former Oakland resident, it's the first thing that
comes to mind when I hear Oakland PD. Seriously, though, if you can provide
the exact location of your stolen property, how can the police not see
tremendous value in following up on it?

~~~
mkempe
I had the exact GPS location of my stolen iPhone in Atlanta. It stayed in one
house for several hours, I drove to that house, called the police while parked
in that street. They refused to do anything, the phone wasn't "worth it". They
stated that: if it had been inside a stolen car they would have sent someone.
When I asked why they weren't acting on the AT&T-supplied information, the
policeman challenged me "are you going to tell me how to do my job?"

~~~
georgieporgie
I've been told that a phrase which often spurs police into action is, "well,
okay then, I've got my gun and I'm heading over there now."

~~~
JackWebbHeller
I wonder what the legal implications of saying that would actually be...?

------
chrisjsmith
This app just makes people worry even more. Worry is bad. Worry kills you from
the inside. Leave it behind and carry on.

Also, get something not worth stealing then you don't have to worry about it.
Anyone half decent can be productive on a piece of junk.

If you have something valuable or desirable, you have to spend $15 on an app
to track it, deal with insurance companies, deal with the police, buy a
burglar alarm to keep your premiums down, buy gates to protect your house,
worry about getting mugged, worry about leaving it somewhere, worry about
status etc.

It is just not worth it.

I live in the knowledge that if someone decided to nick my laptop, they would
be seriously disappointed (and I'd be 80GBP down rather than 1000GBP + all the
above down). Ironically I left it in a McDonalds in London for 2 hours and it
was still there when I realised and went back. Even the staff left it there
and cleaned around it.

~~~
rvanniekerk
Great mindset.

Don't buy decent equipment to increase productivity, buy cheap hardware
because it (most likely will be) stolen at some point!

Also don't make decent money because at some point you will most likely become
a victim of identity theft.

Oh and make sure you live in a run-down old shack because someone is probably
going to rob you otherwise!

Stop making yourselves a target people...

~~~
chrisjsmith
It is decent equipment - it's just not new and shiny. It is as good now as it
was when it was new. Spending 1000GBP more will not increase my productivity
but it will make me have to work harder to pay for it therefore taking time
away from things I deem more important.

I make enough money to be happy and not sacrifice time with my family.

I live in a nice house in a nice area (which my family appreciate) - I can
afford it because I don't have to pay for a new car and MacBook Pro every year
:-)

I am not a target. I am just a person in the crowd not flashing white
earphones around.

Oh did I say: I have a family who are more important than shiny stuff.

~~~
Super_Jambo
What on earth functional laptop are you running for 80GBP? I've a Lenovo T60
which cost £300 refurbished. Had to get extra Ram, HDD and HDD bay. I really
wouldn't want anything with a smaller feature set so I'm kinda intrigued!

~~~
chrisjsmith
Thinkpad X60. 1.66GHz, 2Gb RAM (1 gig of it scored on Freecycle), 80Gb disk.
Runs Windows 7 perfectly fine.

From an auction (not ebay - a proper one).

------
diamondhead
How did you make sure that that guy didn't get your laptop from somebody else?

~~~
Youareannoying
So what? Guilty!

------
JacobIrwin
Beautiful

~~~
JacobIrwin
Not the guy who stole. Instead, the story that is told.

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philthy
Mark Bao tried to pull one of these promotional stunts once.

~~~
hugh3
Whatever _did_ happen with that situation? It seemed far too good to be true.

~~~
jaz
The thief returned the laptop and apologized. Here's the thread and a news
article:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359512>

[http://bostinnovation.com/2011/03/23/dont-steal-a-
computer-f...](http://bostinnovation.com/2011/03/23/dont-steal-a-computer-
from-a-nerd-and-record-yourself-making-it-rain/)

~~~
markbao
And here's the police report. Not a stunt.

[http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/bentley.pd...](http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/bentley.pdf)

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juiceandjuice
I'm totally down to go gangbusters on this dude and help get this laptop back,
FWIW.

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leriksen
Crime solved - your laptop was stolen by Deuce Bigalow, male gigolo

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yblokhin
Genius marketing. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is a fake tumblr
account made with the sole purpose of getting traffic to the app website.
Excellent execution then :)

~~~
valjavec
Just check first picture on Tumblr.

"Guy driving away with my MacBook."

So guy steals a laptop and drives away, puts laptop on a seat next to him,
with screen up?!?

------
omouse
If you can afford a MacBook you can afford to be a vigilante and pay whatever
fine there is for that.

~~~
sean422
Seen a lot of stories like this coming out lately. The best one being when a
guy showed up at a bar to reclaim the stolen laptop:

[http://gizmodo.com/5801592/twitter-vigilante-reclaims-a-
stra...](http://gizmodo.com/5801592/twitter-vigilante-reclaims-a-strangers-
stolen-laptop-after-police-refuse-to-help)

