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My Powerbook was stolen

jer2eydevil88

jer2eydevil88

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2004
254
2
USA
I am a college student and my powerbook was stolen this past monday, the theif took just the notebook. The story is long and drawn out but the theif is a friend of my roommates and I am working to get it back without involving the authorities (because I am afraid he will trash it somewhere on me). According to his friends he has wiped it clean with a borrowed copy of OS X and bought a power brick for it. I am going to the police this week if we cannot resolve this internally. If I need to contact Apple that it was stolen how can I do that? Is there a specific way to go about doing that?

So that brings me to my current position... I have a 2 week old backup I can use to restore it and I thank god I actually made one when I did. I am probably going to take out a loan or use a credit card later this coming week to buy a macbook pro since I need one.

I know now that I am going to set a firmware password on the motherboard at least on the new one, I also have been considering a password in the hard drives firmware itself should it support it. Then comes my next round of questions...

Should I get it back, can I do a surface scan like on a PC (forensic scan to some) and recover data not zero'd out? What kind of software assists with that?
 
Threads like this make me generally angry at society...

If it does in fact come down to it, you can report your powerbook's serial number to Apple as stolen on their site. This way, any AppleCare or Genius Bar work done on it will raise a red flag.

As for the Police, I'd contact them ASAP regardless of this Friendly B.S. If you really feel it's best not to, at least threaten the use of police force. Also, grab any boxes or documentation to prove the PB is yours when it comes time to claim it.
 
To be honest I hold my roommate mostly responsible for this mess seeing as he is only on his friends case because of me raising hell about this.

I never thought I would say this but being that this was brought upon me through someone I happen to be living with... I feel robbed.
 
I wouldn't hesitate calling to police at all; why are you being friendly about it when they STOLE your laptop...Don't try to be nice about it; a thief is a thief.

The longer you wait the more suspicious it will look when you file a police report.
 
emac82 said:
I wouldn't hesitate calling to police at all; why are you being friendly about it when they STOLE your laptop...Don't try to be nice about it; a thief is a thief.

The longer you wait the more suspicious it will look when you file a police report.
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I have witnesses willing to make testimony, it was stolen at my house off campus where there are robberies all the time. The longer I take to build my case and the more evidence I have and witnesses that see the perp with my property the better my chances are of actually getting help from the authorities.
 
jer2eydevil88 said:
I have witnesses willing to make testimony, it was stolen at my house off campus where there are robberies all the time. The longer I take to build my case and the more evidence I have and witnesses that see the perp with my property the better my chances are of actually getting help from the authorities.
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Not really. You will just be asked "Why did you not report this sooner instead of playing Columbo?".

Are you telling the whole story here?
 
do you have a receipt or other physical proof? I'm not sure circumstantial evidence will prove anything...personally i think you need to point out some sort of undeniable physical proof.
 
BlackMax said:
Call the police and give them all the facts you know. Prosecute the bum to the fullest extent of the law. :mad: :mad: :mad:
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Or stick the serial number in your pocket, and if you find the guy with a similar machine.

Stop, look at it and if it is yours steal it back while you beat the crap out of him.

Likely it'll be sold quickly.

Edit: Yes, it does sound criminal to beat the crap out of him when you take it back -- but sometimes thieves do fight back and are unwilling to give up their stolen merchandise. Who will the cops believe, you or the thief -- who would have to admit to having stolen property.
 
Freyqq said:
do you have a receipt or other physical proof? I'm not sure circumstantial evidence will prove anything...personally i think you need to point out some sort of undeniable physical proof.
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I have everything for it, the receipt, the box, the power cable which has its own serial and is registered with the laptop, I even have the wipe and restore disks for it still. Basically he just walked away with the laptop itself.

Going to the police in my area (Clifton Heights, Cincinnati Ohio) is not known to get results.
 
Oh why do I bother..

I called the police today after letting this whole thing sink in, I just got off the phone with them. They took my case information, jotted down the details and told me a case number would be mailed to me within 7 - 10 days. I could use that for insurance, then they told me that during that time my case would be analyzed to see if an investigation was warranted.

Basically they don't give a flying ****. I am so pissed. I shouldn't have bothered. I will keep working with the people I was originally counting on to get this back into my hands.
 
jer2eydevil88 said:
I called the police today after letting this whole thing sink in, I just got off the phone with them. They took my case information, jotted down the details and told me a case number would be mailed to me within 7 - 10 days. I could use that for insurance, then they told me that during that time my case would be analyzed to see if an investigation was warranted.

Basically they don't give a flying ****. I am so pissed. I shouldn't have bothered. I will keep working with the people I was originally counting on to get this back into my hands.
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wow, the police in your area SUCK. Sorry to hear that man. I don't usually support violence, but in this case, you know who did it, you know (or can find out) where he lives, and the law won't help you. So if it's physically doable, I'd be all for tracking the guy down and just taking it back, with force if necessary.
 
QCassidy352 said:
wow, the police in your area SUCK. Sorry to hear that man. I don't usually support violence, but in this case, you know who did it, you know (or can find out) where he lives, and the law won't help you. So if it's physically doable, I'd be all for tracking the guy down and just taking it back, with force if necessary.
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That's horrible advice. That's just asking for trouble.
 
Really sorry to hear about that man :( that totally sucks and I wish you the best in finding your PB. If and when you ever get it back, I suggest buying Undercover. I bought it not not too long after I bought my MacBook.
 
Well, this might be way of but at my highschool there are cops at every corner so id guess there is at least one on your campus, can you go and talk to him? Or an administrator at your school?
 
I ordered a Macbook Pro last night, I need one to work over the next week/weekend so I am out of time.

My current plans include buying Undercover, putting a password on the firmware of the hard drive, a password on the firmware of the motherboard, and finding out if truecrypt supports HFS+, then I'll reinstall OS X on the encrypted partition and turn filevault on afterwards I will install Undercover.

My roommate is not a good friend of mine, but he is still trying to convince the thief to give it back.

I will not escalate this to violence, I would try and steal it back should the opportunity ever present itself but he didn't physically attack anyone to take it.

:apple:

I called the law enforcement for my campus but they won't help because I live two blocks down the street so its officially under city jurisdiction.
 
jer2eydevil88 said:
My roommate is not a good friend of mine, but he is still trying to convince the thief to give it back.

I will not escalate this to violence, I would try and steal it back should the opportunity ever present itself but he didn't physically attack anyone to take it.

:apple:

I called the law enforcement for my campus but they won't help because I live two blocks down the street so its officially under city jurisdiction.
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I doubt you will get it back, especially if the thief knows you aren't going to do anything.

Thieves are scum, and count on people being too nice to do anything.

It is also unfortunate that he will likely come back and steal more from you until you beat him hard enough to keep him away. And if he is a friend of your roomate, I doubt he will keep the scum away either.
 
Sun Baked said:
I doubt you will get it back, especially if the thief knows you aren't going to do anything.

Thieves are scum, and count on people being too nice to do anything.

It is also unfortunate that he will likely come back and steal more from you until you beat him hard enough to keep him away. And if he is a friend of your roomate, I doubt he will keep the scum away either.
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I agree with this, I'm sorry to say. The thief is/was essentially stringing you along -- by the time you went to the cops, the thing was likely sold and long gone.

I'm not sure another notebook seems like the right decision in this circumstance -- you're an easy target right now.

That said, you can certainly turn to the administration of your university -- the physical act may have been outside the jurisdiction of your university security, but I doubt that your administration would turn a blind eye to students stealing from other students (if you have as much proof as you claim). In short -- you need to stand up for yourself and do something that demonstrates that there will be a consequence if this person tries something again.

Does the thief know you've gone to the police? If not, the thief needs to know.
 
well, this just sucks.

both you and the thief knows he stole it, as well as your friends? if you're friends knew and didn't do anything, man oh man....they would be gone as my friends (after you get the book back).

i'm never one for violence, but i would be so wanting to kick his a$$. it's not the right thing to do however.

i can't believe the police didn't do anything. did you threaten that you would go after the guy if you didn't get any help? maybe that would prompt them from stopping some violence. just terrible.

he probably did sell it. what a f*cker. can you get parents involved? or something?

know any mob members? there's gotta be someone to help you get it back?

and, if you haven't thought of this yet, LOCK anything else important to you in your room...in a safe. sounds like your roommate is a bit of a knob.

he shouldn't be asking his friend to get it back. he should be marching right over there to get it back. should have been there the moment it was gone.

this infuriates me. they are both punks.

ugh.
cheers,
keebler
 
get one of those kenningston locks that basically tie the laptop to the desk...if you know what i'm talking about. If they wanted to steal it again they would literally have to carry the desk with them =P
 
I can't believe that even though you know the person who stole it, the cops won't go bang on his door. The RCMP certainly would around here.

Why don't you personally go try and retrieve it?? Go with a few of your friends for back up.
 
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