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surfkevinsurf

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2008
3
0
Sacramento, CA
Alright, here goes my last two weeks.
Two Sundays ago I was playing football with a couple friends. The game ended abruptly when I broke my leg and went to the hospital, but thats not the bad part. I was in the hospital for 6 hours and when I got home I found that someone had broken in and stolen my 32" Vizio flatscreen TV, xbox 360 elite, DVD player, and most importantly my 15" Macbook Pro. I called the police immediately and they came out and did the standard police thing, but as I've been in contact with them lately, they say they have no leads and I'm not going to get my stuff back, bottom line.

Now I'm left with no computer to work with and worst of all, I know I'll never get the things back that were important to me on that computer. I had pictures on it from when I was 10 years old and I'll never see them again. I worked really hard to save the money to buy those things and they are all gone in an instant. I just can't believe it.

I have no one else to turn to and I just don't know what else I can do. I'm getting married soon and I can't afford to go buy a new laptop, to be honest at this point that's all I care about as far as what was stolen. If anyone knows any way to track a laptop or xbox 360 it would be appreciated. I know its a long shot.
 

SnowLeopard2008

macrumors 604
Jul 4, 2008
6,772
16
Silicon Valley
Damn that really sucks. If you still have the serial numbers of the xbox, mbp, tv, dvd player, just check around craigslist and ebay asking the sellers what the serial is. you might be lucky, I remember my laptop (iBook G4) was stolen at school. I had pictures on it and I was like 12 back then so I wasn't into data backups and things like that, but luckily I had a copy of my photos on my iPod nano. 3 years later, I still look back at that moment. Hopefully the thief has some remorse and will give it back to you? Or you might be lucky to find it on eBay/Craigslist and report that auction to the police saying it's yours.
 

MarkMS

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2006
992
0
As SnowLeopard2008 said, if you have the serial numbers check around on eBay and Craigslist. Now I'm not 100% sure about this, but I believe you can also contact Apple (specifically AppleCare) and Microsoft and let them know you had your Macbook Pro and Xbox 360 stolen. They can place those serial numbers on a list and watch them if someone were to send them back for repairs. I'm not sure if they do this, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Also, do you have a Silver or Gold Live account for the Xbox? If so, you can either get a friend's Xbox and add your gamertag to see if it goes online or log into the Xbox website with a new gamertag and add the old gamertag. If you see it go online or has been online since it's been stolen, you can contact the police with the proof. From there they can contact Microsoft for more information such as IP addresses which can locate the general area of where the Xbox might be. Same can be done with the MBP, but you would either have to have some third party software (i.e., Orbicule Undercover) or something like Screen Sharing/VNC.

Sorry for the loss and hope you get everything back.
 

surfkevinsurf

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2008
3
0
Sacramento, CA
Update

An update on my stolen laptop:mad:

So I get an email today from apple asking me to fill out a survey about my recent apple store repair. Since I haven't been to the apple store since my computer was stolen, I naturally find this odd.
So I make a call to apple care and ask what store I went to and what date and give them the serial number of my stolen laptop to make sure thats what the repair was done on.
They tell me the store in Glendale, AZ and the date, 4 days ago and give me the phone number to call them. So the guy at the store says that someone came in with my laptop and had the battery repaired or replaced and said since they didn't keep my computer overnight there was no way to track it.
Heres my first issue: I made several calls to applecare after my laptop was stolen and they said they flagged the serial number so if anyone ever came into the store or called on it, it would show up stolen. This did not happpen.
My second issue is this: I asked the guy at the apple store if he could flag that laptop so that they wouldn't just give it back to the thief if he brought it back in. He told me they don't do that and if the laptop was brought back in again they would not contact me or the police and just give it right back to the guy who stole it. WTF apple? seriously? I'm so furious right now, I almost have the money saved for a new laptop and I think it's gonna be a Dell.

Btw, the guy who stole it is the guy who brought it in, he used my name and apparently knows me.
 

MarkMS

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2006
992
0
How about you contact Glendale police? Tell them the story and they could possibly get Apple to give up something. I know the police has more important matter to deal with, but it doesn't hurt to try. If it were me, I would keep pursuing this until I get the laptop back. I mean they stole your property and, by the looks of it, your identity too.

Also, call AppleCare again. If they said they flagged it then it should have shown up in the system. I would also ask more than one person.
 

jbrenn

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2008
638
0
i would contact the police and bring the police report in to the apple store to see if you can get the video tape. to see what the person looks like i bet it is a friend that knew you would be gone for a while.
 

cronnos

macrumors newbie
Jan 17, 2009
25
0
South Texas
An update on my stolen laptop:mad:

So I get an email today from apple asking me to fill out a survey about my recent apple store repair. Since I haven't been to the apple store since my computer was stolen, I naturally find this odd.
So I make a call to apple care and ask what store I went to and what date and give them the serial number of my stolen laptop to make sure thats what the repair was done on.
They tell me the store in Glendale, AZ and the date, 4 days ago and give me the phone number to call them. So the guy at the store says that someone came in with my laptop and had the battery repaired or replaced and said since they didn't keep my computer overnight there was no way to track it.
Heres my first issue: I made several calls to applecare after my laptop was stolen and they said they flagged the serial number so if anyone ever came into the store or called on it, it would show up stolen. This did not happpen.
My second issue is this: I asked the guy at the apple store if he could flag that laptop so that they wouldn't just give it back to the thief if he brought it back in. He told me they don't do that and if the laptop was brought back in again they would not contact me or the police and just give it right back to the guy who stole it. WTF apple? seriously? I'm so furious right now, I almost have the money saved for a new laptop and I think it's gonna be a Dell.

Btw, the guy who stole it is the guy who brought it in, he used my name and apparently knows me.

When I first read your original post, the first thing that crossed my mind was that it must've been somebody you know. It was fishy that when you returned from the hospital everything was gone. You need to start asking around those guys you played football with. Also, if Apple keeps giving you trouble, contact the police but also contact the media. You never know how they can help you, specially TV. Contact the paper, but they might blow you off because your case is more like a police blotter type of story, but if it's a slow newsday, the TV crew might make a big deal about it and get police and even Apple to pay attention to you.
 

DarthTreydor

macrumors 6502
May 25, 2007
292
0
Richmond, VA
How about you contact Glendale police? Tell them the story and they could possibly get Apple to give up something. I know the police has more important matter to deal with, but it doesn't hurt to try. If it were me, I would keep pursuing this until I get the laptop back. I mean they stole your property and, by the looks of it, your identity too.

Also, call AppleCare again. If they said they flagged it then it should have shown up in the system. I would also ask more than one person.

get apple to give up something? it's not their fault his computer got stolen and its really not their problem. yeah, it sucks what happened. i know the frustration of having something valuable taken from you. but let's be realistic.
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
Yes they do flag the machine. You need a police report and your serial number. Ask a manager if the genius don't do it. They would add a note under the serial. However, what happens if a machine is flagged is unclear.

Well have the police talk to the genius who worked on the machine.
Provide pictures of all the football players / people you know to the police for that.

If the police don't want to act on it, I would do it myself.

Anyone can turn on your computer and see your user name, so may or may not be someone you know.
 

erstwhilepo

macrumors member
Jan 4, 2009
36
0
Midwest
Contact the police who originally took the report and let them coordinate with the agency where the Apple store is located. Most of these cases go unsolved - a Detective would have been assigned to it and if he/she is worth their salt they will follow-up because resolving your case will likely resolve others.

Knowing your name does not necessarily imply that the person knows you - they could have gotten that information any number of ways (mail in your house or even on the MB itself). But it does make sense that it may have been someone you know - opportunity.
 

Scottsdale

Suspended
Sep 19, 2008
4,473
283
U.S.A.
Sorry to hear of your loss. Next time, think about LoJack for Laptops. I have the service, and I hope if I ever lose my Mac to a thief it is recovered. Sorry to hear about this lost Mac though. I sure hate these stories. Best wishes in a speedy recovery and return of your items.
 

surfkevinsurf

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2008
3
0
Sacramento, CA
Thanks for the advice, I've been in contact with a detective at the police department there since it happened and he knows the guy went in for a repair, he's trying to view the security tape now. I even heard from a good friend of mine in Arizona that the guy who took it is this guy I used to work with who knew where I lived, which makes sense cause I saw him in my apartment complex earlier that day and I didn't think anything of it at the time. Anyway now the cops are trying to find him, which I guess is taking a while, so we'll see
 

Theirishjoey

macrumors member
Nov 15, 2008
61
0
I sure hate the stories. I really feel for you dude.

Good luck and I hope the police catch that guy. Keep us posted!
 

JustGretchen

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2008
464
0
The apple store should cooperate with local law enforcement. It's pretty much the law and if you have evidence, and they have evidence, and the police are willing to look at the evidence, then the store has to comply.

As far as your other stuff...I would ask if you have renters or homeowners insurance. If you do, you can file a claim and get $$ to get new stuff.

Best of luck to you.
 

ZachsMacDaddy

macrumors 6502
Dec 24, 2007
456
55
Maryland
get apple to give up something? it's not their fault his computer got stolen and its really not their problem. yeah, it sucks what happened. i know the frustration of having something valuable taken from you. but let's be realistic.

How about looking at it from another angle? It's illegal to accept stolen property. Even if you don't know that it's stolen, you can get in trouble. So if Apple took the old battery and gave the thief a new one, couldn't you make the case that they accepted stolen property in the form of the bad (stolen) battery? He HAD notified Apple to report the system stolen, so the company had been made aware. After the fact the store refused to deny service if they person came back again, so now they know it's stolen and are willing to take it back and support it for the thief.

I'd say the store has the responsibility to document the serial number as stolen with a police report as proof. They then have the responsibility to hold the laptop and notify the authorities if it comes back in again.

It's not all that different from a pawn shop losing out if they happen to accept stolen goods without knowing.

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm stating an opinion, not legal facts here.
 
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