MBP Stolen

[Mistershark]

Hey all,

A week ago today, my 15" SR MacBook Pro was stolen while attending a wedding in San Leandro, California (1000 miles from home). After the incident occurred, I immediately activated every security measure on Prey (http://preyproject.com/) in an attempt both to lock my computer down and catch the thief. Unfortunately, I did not receive any reports back, and a few days ago someone tried to log in (unsuccessfully) to my facebook from Salt Lake City.

Luckily, I had everything backed up, so there's no problem there. However, I was curious if there was any way to remotely lock down my computer, assuming I wasn't running Back to My Mac. I do have MobileMe, and it is running on my stolen laptop.

Anyone have experience with this? Prey was a huuuge disappointment. If the thieves did wipe my hard drive clean, then how was my facebook accessed (since my internet cache was presumably not cleared)?

Any words of wisdom, stories, or recommendations would be very helpful. And as soon as WWDC's keynote airs, I'll be picking up a new Mac.

Thanks!

 

[ideal.dreams]

There's no way, that I know of, to remotely lock your MacBook down unless you installed special software prior to it being stolen to do just that.

It's a bummer, I hope you wind up getting it back. For the future, you might wanna try using www.hiddenapp.com. From what I hear it works quite well in recovering stolen MacBooks.

Good luck.

Update: I checked out Prey, and it looks like it won't help much unless you're paying monthly for it. In the 10 minute time window it takes to get the report, who ever stole it could have powered it off and left it somewhere.

 

[Mistershark]

Thanks!

And I just saw something in the news about a guy recovering his MB thanks to Hidden App. Funny thing was, the theft also happened in Oakland. (San Leandro is a suburb of Oakland).

 

[ideal.dreams]

Haha, people need to keep their MacBook's away from that area then!

But anyways, if you do get a new MacBook I would definitely check out Hidden; it's 15 bucks a year, not 60 a year like Prey. Seems worth it.

 

[cloroxbleach4]

You could also consider LoJack for laptops.

 

[Mistershark]

Thanks guys.

I've looked into both of them. I may just have to buy them both. And actually I just found the guy's IP address using DropBox, so we'll see where that leads.

 

[ideal.dreams]

Thanks guys.

I've looked into both of them. I may just have to buy them both. And actually I just found the guy's IP address using DropBox, so we'll see where that leads.

You could probably give that to the police if you've reported it stolen...they can whois it and get the guy's ISP and from the ISP they can tell the police who's network it is...you might have a good shot at getting it back.

 

[uaecasher]

Thanks guys.

I've looked into both of them. I may just have to buy them both. And actually I just found the guy's IP address using DropBox, so we'll see where that leads.

great, just try to report it to the police ASAP.