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Back To My Mac Used To Catch Laptop Thieves

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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One woman has found Apple's Back To My Mac feature (part of .Mac) to be extremely useful in helping to capture a pair of laptop thieves.

Police say the woman got a call from a friend asking if she was online.
The victim said no and was told by the friend that her computer showed her as being on the Internet.

At that point the victim signed onto another computer and used the "Back to My Mac" program to determine that her stolen MacIntosh laptop was on the Web.

She then used the stolen computer's camera to photograph [one of the suspects].
Click to expand...

Police have made two arrests and have recovered most of the $5,000 worth of electronics stolen from the woman's apartment in late April.

Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/09/back-to-my-mac-used-to-catch-laptop-thieves/
So she shared her screen and launched photo booth, then copied the files over... great, but if someone was sat there and saw that happening they'd surely be smart enough to disconnect from the network... although obviously in this case they weren't. Lucky break.
 
samh004 said:
So she shared her screen and launched photo booth, then copied the files over... great, but if someone was sat there and saw that happening they'd surely be smart enough to disconnect from the network... although obviously in this case they weren't. Lucky break.
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If she already had screen-sharing going, as soon as she got an app open that displayed input from the camera she could get a screenshot, she wouldn't need to have the remote machine take a picture, then transfer it someplace. If she was quick it would be hard to disconnect as soon as Photobooth, etc. opened.

-Lee
 
lee1210 said:
If she already had screen-sharing going, as soon as she got an app open that displayed input from the camera she could get a screenshot, she wouldn't need to have the remote machine take a picture, then transfer it someplace. If she was quick it would be hard to disconnect as soon as Photobooth, etc. opened.

-Lee
Click to expand...

Like most computer users, the theif probably didn't even realise what was happening and smiled for the camera!
 
I thought this was using the program Undercover when I first heard of it. I saw this on the news they described the person "hacking" into their Mac. Hah! :D I don't get it - I can't get Back To My Mac working with optimal network settings yet it works through a random Wi-Fi hotspot? :rolleyes:

Glad they got their laptop back though! :p
 
This headline has actually made my day :)

On a side note; people who just take electronic stuff probably don't even know how to use it and just try to resell it or something.
 
Glad they got caught, I wish there was more anti theft built into computers. Thieves Suck
 
Cool :) Happy ending story.

Ah guys check UNDERCOVER! It rocks.
 
Undercover

ikir said:
Cool :) Happy ending story.

Ah guys check UNDERCOVER! It rocks.
Click to expand...

Undercover is the better-than-LoJack solution for the Mac - Works in the background so you don't have to.................
 
Read about this a while back, but the thief hadn't been caught at the time.

Within a couple days, the owners were able to assemble a full profile of information on the stolen laptop user as he signed into a hookup sites, read his Gmail messages, and shopped on eBay for… a police scanner. They discovered his birth date, mother’s maiden name, email address, Comcast IP address, and were able to use Photo Booth to take a snapshot that was clear enough to read the lettering of his tattoos.
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The guys must normally be Windows users.

I mean, what person who's used to Mac computers would expect a program to launch itself and take a picture of you? (I used Windows for the first time just the other day in boot camp to play the Orange Box. OMG, it's like Microsoft tries to piss you off. "Your computer will reset in 5 minutes." WTF? I'm playing a game! I'm having fun! I don't even want my software updated because I'm not going to ever even let Windows connect to my network! Oh, and every time I start up Windows it thinks my EyeTV is new hardware and it insists on trying to find some drivers for it. So now it doesn't seem to unreasonable for it to try taking a picture of me for no apparent reason either.)
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
The guys must normally be Windows users.

I mean, what person who's used to Mac computers would expect a program to launch itself and take a picture of you? (I used Windows for the first time just the other day in boot camp to play the Orange Box. OMG, it's like Microsoft tries to piss you off. "Your computer will reset in 5 minutes." WTF? I'm playing a game! I'm having fun! I don't even want my software updated because I'm not going to ever even let Windows connect to my network! Oh, and every time I start up Windows it thinks my EyeTV is new hardware and it insists on trying to find some drivers for it. So now it doesn't seem to unreasonable for it to try taking a picture of me for no apparent reason either.)
Click to expand...

Your impressions of Windows and its users are inaccurate.
 
StuBeck said:
Your impressions of Windows and its users are inaccurate.
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Yea, but what reasonable OS would Force you to restart your computer because it wanted to update your software (automatically, no less)? When I first saw that dialog in Windows I couldn't believe it was actually serious... But then the computer "End Task"'d everything and restarted, with my jaws hanging... I remember once it didn't even give you the option to delay the restart... And another time I wasn't even at my computer... when I came back it was at the log in screen and all my progs had been closed...

I love my Mac :cool:
 
This is great news!

If this isn't a good enough reason for a Mac Laptop owner to buy .Mac, I don't know what is.

Great :)

If I had a Macbook, I know I'd definitely be getting .Mac now...

well, maybe after June :p
 
Back to my Mac?

Great news, now if I could only get my MBP to connect to my PB when I'm not at home. Does back to my mac work when the home computer is connected to a wireless router or does it have to be hard wired to the internet?

A
 
SiriusExcelsior said:
Yea, but what reasonable OS would Force you to restart your computer because it wanted to update your software (automatically, no less)? When I first saw that dialog in Windows I couldn't believe it was actually serious... But then the computer "End Task"'d everything and restarted, with my jaws hanging... I remember once it didn't even give you the option to delay the restart... And another time I wasn't even at my computer... when I came back it was at the log in screen and all my progs had been closed...

I love my Mac :cool:
Click to expand...
Windows never forces you to restart your computer. You can always postpone the automatic restart. I recall once (and I believe it was after installing a service pack), that it was going to automatically restart within 10 minutes or so, but even then, there was still a cancel command you could have clicked.

Also, you have to occasionally restart your Mac, too.
 
thingamajigidid said:
if they format your computer neither lojack or underground works right?
Click to expand...

But, if you put a firmware password on your system, they wont be able to boot off an install disc in order to wipe the drive. This is especially true in the new MBA since you can't take it apart and change the RAM to try and disable the password check.
 
Quillz said:
Windows never forces you to restart your computer. You can always postpone the automatic restart. I recall once (and I believe it was after installing a service pack), that it was going to automatically restart within 10 minutes or so, but even then, there was still a cancel command you could have clicked. .
Click to expand...

But it just comes up again in like 2 min, so it's annoying, and won't go away until you restart.

This is pretty sweet tho. .Mac seems like it would be worth it for a laptop.
 
Quillz said:
Also, you have to occasionally restart your Mac, too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it only tells you that it wants to restart once.

If you tell it "later" then it won't bug you again until software update runs.

But Windows, well it decided that every 5 minutes it was going to hide my game so I could tell it to get out of my way. If portal were a more active game like an FPS where timing and such is more essential I'd be really pissed instead of just severly annoyed.
 
SiriusExcelsior said:
Yea, but what reasonable OS would Force you to restart your computer because it wanted to update your software (automatically, no less)? When I first saw that dialog in Windows I couldn't believe it was actually serious... But then the computer "End Task"'d everything and restarted, with my jaws hanging... I remember once it didn't even give you the option to delay the restart... And another time I wasn't even at my computer... when I came back it was at the log in screen and all my progs had been closed...

I love my Mac :cool:
Click to expand...

It doesn't force you. I've only had third party software do that. Windows gives you the option, similar to how OS X requires you to either shut down or restart.
 
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