Notebook Thieves caught thanks to built-in webcam
Two men arrested after a woman whose computer they’re accused of stealing managed to log onto the laptop and photograph them with it are scheduled to appear in City Court next week to face felony charges. Edmon Shahikian, 23, and Ian Frias, 20, are charged with second-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property in the April 27 burglary of a Ridgeview Avenue apartment in which $5,000 worth of electronics were stolen. They were arrested Wednesday, after one of the three roommates who live in the apartment used her stolen laptop’s “Back to My Mac” software to determine that it was signed onto the Internet, police said.
The 19-year-old victim, who works in the Apple Store in The Westchester mall, then used the laptop’s camera to photograph Shahikian, police said. She also found photos of Frias using the computer after it had been stolen, police said. The computer-savvy victim did not recognize either man, but one of her roommates did, remembering they had attended a recent party at the apartment. The information was turned over to police, who nabbed both men at their homes a short time later. did not return calls. Shahikian, of 13 Cobbling Rock Road, Katonah, is free on $3,500 bail. Frias, a Bronx resident, is being held at the Westchester County jail on $7,500 bail. Both are due in City Court on May 15.
Source: NY Times, Lohud
lol
nice app for mac
Pretty funny, haha sucks to be them.
was just on the front page of Digg.
http://digg.com/apple/Stolen_MacBook_Victim_Uses_iSight_to_Bust_Thieves
It pays to show, and nubs like that show the world what kinda of idiots we are around.
What is this? Free publicity for Apple products?
Hilarious, they deserve to get busted by such a tech savvy woman. Good for her! Dumbasses.
“Thiefs”?
yea haha but what the hell were they stealin her laptop 4 anywayz? they shoulda planned it better hahah good for that woman though tech girls are comin up in the world hahah
hahahahahahahaahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahah
look at the suspects real photos here
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/nyregion/10laptop.html?em&ex=1210564800&en=1e2fca4d1701c016&ei=5087%0A
they look like amateurs/noobs lollll
lol Iceman, thanks for that.
Looks like Laurel and Hardy from here.
Thiefs? Martin please learn how to write properly and stop turning RLSLOG into DiggLog.
pwned! happened once b4 on flickr
@ 7,jim
Its the american spelling.
hahahah pwned
thief - thieves …
Thanks for that story. Interesting software. Casaubon - this hardly qualifies as publicity. It’s just news. Apple products are only written here once in a while. Compared to PC stuff, it’s like 1:20. Give it a break you MAC haters!
long live justice!
Frias, a Bronx resident, is being held at the Westchester County jail on $7,500 bail
I bet Frias is the black guy.
what is that beeping on this page?
@19 Yes he is.. He is the younger of the two as well.
I personally think this is a publicity stunt though. It’s all very convenient, her being an Apple employee, her having a $99 dollar to a subscription to the service. The little tale about the countdown timer and him trying to get his hand over the lens is pretty suspect too.
Ahh well, I guess stupider things have happened.
Why the hell did they steal a mac?
I’ve got similar software installed on my macbook
Has a laptop been greated with a build in GPS receiver??? i guess this will be the next anti-thief software. it partially exist on cell phones why not on laptops???
One of these douchebags lives near me.
And in turn another Apple product gets viral publicity (again on RLSLog)…
i heard of a story like this a year or two ago, theres a company that sells the software and it was bascially the same story. not a first, but its always good for a laugh. you can, however, beat the software by a simple hd format and if you steal a laptop and dont switch the wireless card and format the drive, well, your pretty stupid. i could be wrong, but in the few years theyve been selling the software, i think theyve only caught a few people, so i think its kinda a waste, but what do i know.
@Johney666
Stop whining about Apple. The article is about how someone lost their PC and was able to use their MAC to alert the authorities in the recovery of the stolen PC.
Everyone should be glad to hear about how Mac has software it’s customers can use to recover their stolen PC. I had a few Windows laptop stolen and there wasn’t this useful software that at least Mac provides it’s customers.
And no, those Windows laptops were never recovered. If only I had a Mac instead of a Windows PC instead.
“Back to My Mac” is part of an online service that costs $99 per year and allows users to gain access to their personal computer from any connected Macintosh computer with the operating system Leopard. The software that Ms. Duplaga used to take a picture of the thief, called PhotoBooth, is standard on all newer Apple laptop models, perhaps an unintended new frontier in crime-fighting.
while this usage was cool, this software has been in place and
is made specifically to do this kind of laptop recovery.
reveals or provides:
ip address, geolocated
screenshots during usage
isight pics every 6 min
creates a SIMULATED HARWARE FAILURE
so they will sell it fast.
THEN, informs the buyer it is stolen and is now UNUSABLE!
all this is FIRMWARE PROTECTED so they can’t even format
the hard drive to get rid of it.
LOL
macs are just better computers.
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
@28
There are similar services for Windows. At least one which is totally free.
macs are not computers. stop being silly.
Well Apple’s are at least good for something apperantly
it happened in my neck of the woods… westchester!
@34
Northern Westchester, FTW!
I dont get it, why would anyone wanna steal a mac?
Stupid Angelic Mac Haters. I Can’t Believe You All! I Have a Windows Computer, and I Still Appreciate the Mac as a Computer too. If You Actually Sat Your Dumb Ass Down and Learned How to Use One, You Would See That the Mac is Just as Powerful as a Windows Computer, if Not More So in Some Areas.
Grow Up Morons
@36
You said it…
it isn’t an apple stunt, a lot of people have .mac accounts, it isn’t “just” a remote thing, you get e-mail, web hosting, photo galleries, an iDrive (virtual thumb drive) and a whole bunch of other cool features, very useful. Back to my mac is just a feature, it basically gives you like windows remote desktop, which mac has for free, but back to my mac just tracks it when it is on the internet and auto-signed into .mac. What she did was open “photo booth”, a standard app, the reason the guy saw a countdown is because it does open up on the screen and go 1 -2 -3 then the screen turns bright white like a flash and it takes your picture. I am amazed that they let it run, probably had no idea someone was remotely controlling it… but I see a webcam pop-up and a countdown… well, I am taking that sucker off-line haha, it isn’t like she was stealthy… and sneakily took the pics.. it was sorta like, bam, in their faes, and it beeps during the countdown
All I can say is PWN3D! Glade she got her stuff back. This about someone getting caught for being an A-HOLE not Mac vs PC.
Though a MAC is a PC sold by apple. The more you try to distinguish a MAC from other PCs, the more you help apple.
Remember a major rule of business is to distinguish your product from the competition (in a good way though).
#12 (Jay Sherman) is obviously a complete whanker. If you don’t like this site Jay, please go somewhere else. PS Criticising the site owner is likely to get you a perma ban. Be grateful you have RSLog.
@ 30, if i stole an apple i would have already looked up the info (people are DUMB) do your research its a high tech world…anyways i would have read your comment or found my answer in a google search…then your all around great apple would just end up being destroyed if i couldnt use it, so either way you lose HAHAHA. i dont steal but if i did…i wouldnt have been caught
burn them
owned!!!
lol OWNED!!!
most sites nuke macwarez anyway just because they dont want that crap taking up valuable space…
I am using this verey for mac from this singapore company bak2u.com, just video it and then send it to my phone and email.
lmao… fail, fail & fail!
they deserve to be beaten over the feet with a bamboo cane
really.. they should have done a clean format. haha.