Recovering Stolen Laptop

cubertcubert
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
My girlfriend's laptop was stolen out of our apartment yesterday. If I know the stolen Mac's MAC address, can I track and find it.



Relevant Info: Already reported to the police. Mobile Me not set up on it. Auto-login enabled (ie. no password requirement at login). No recovery third party software. I believe I know the person who did it and sat outside his house last night trying to see if it showed up under "Shared" in the Finder sidebar - no luck though as I think no one was home.



I think taking a screenshot of my laptop's Finder window with her laptop showing up in the Finder sidebar is my best bet now to get a search warrant. Any other ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    bbwibbwi Posts: 812member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cubert View Post


    My girlfriend's laptop was stolen out of our apartment yesterday. If I know the stolen Mac's MAC address, can I track and find it.



    Relevant Info: Already reported to the police. Mobile Me not set up on it. Auto-login enabled (ie. no password requirement at login). No recovery third party software. I believe I know the person who did it and sat outside his house last night trying to see if it showed up under "Shared" in the Finder sidebar - no luck though as I think no one was home.



    I think taking a screenshot of my laptop's Finder window with her laptop showing up in the Finder sidebar is my best bet now to get a search warrant. Any other ideas?



    The MAC address won't help you over the internet (MAC addresses aren't transmitted over te inet) and I don't know if it will help you in any regards. MAC addresses can be easily cloned or faked so it would be hard to prove anything... to the Police. But, you could probly assume (to yourself) that the person who stole it is using the same MAC address it came with because most people don't know enough about computers to install software to change the original MAC address.



    I still don't think that having her laptop show up in your Finder is enough (I'm not a police officer) to get a search warrant.



    But at any rate, this post will most likely be deleted AppleInsider due to legal issues.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    cubertcubert Posts: 728member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bbwi View Post


    The MAC address won't help you over the internet (MAC addresses aren't transmitted over te inet) and I don't know if it will help you in any regards. MAC addresses can be easily cloned or faked so it would be hard to prove anything... to the Police. But, you could probly assume (to yourself) that the person who stole it is using the same MAC address it came with because most people don't know enough about computers to install software to change the original MAC address.



    I still don't think that having her laptop show up in your Finder is enough (I'm not a police officer) to get a search warrant.



    But at any rate, this post will most likely be deleted AppleInsider due to legal issues.



    I forgot to say that I would also take pictures of the screen while in front of his house. I would hope that would be enough for a search warrant.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    goodcitizengoodcitizen Posts: 1member
    Well it is likely too late but all worth saying - perhaps can help others. Importantly, this will only work if ur girlfriend has not changed her password(s) and relies on the thief not being very tech savvy.



    many people cache passwords in browsers, password managers or possibly in an app like an email program using POP3 or IMAP, i.e. Mac's Mail program or even Google Notifier (which is HTTP/S). When they are started up, it will check for email. Some email services, such as Gmail, will allow you to see what IP addresses have accessed the service.



    For example located at the bottom of the Gmail page, click on "Details" and will be presented like, the following:

    Last account activity: 18 minutes ago on this computer. Details



    IP addresses can give you a location by looking it up at sites like http://whatismyipaddress.com. This site will give your current as well as allow you to query the location of an IP and map it. Note, this record could also be worth showing the police if you ever discover suspicious IP activity. They could supeona the relevant ISP for court submissable records and then go to the offenders location to search premises.



    With the same thought process of cached passwords, wireless connection managers, in this case Airport, will remember your wireless passwords. Being a determined sleuth, I would setup the access point powered up near the suspect's location and examine the IP lease log to see if you have someone automatically connecting. This would rely on your AP being password protected. If an additional IP address connects, it could be indicative of the thief having the laptop provided no one else is using the password to connect in the vicinity. Then if you have internet connected to the AP, a packet capture could then reveal precisely who the offender is without making them aware of anything going on. The problem is this will start to make it all somewhat advanced and could even be illegal in your locale. Be warned.



    For the next laptop or if you can successfully recover the old one, the Orbicule tool is reportedly good for recovering Macs and iPhones alike - http://www.orbicule.com. Cool thing is that it gets a picture via the integrated web cam on the laptop. Another tool called Computrace http://www.absolute.com/products/lojack will do Mac & PC alike which we have successfully utilized at work.



    Hope this all helps and good luck. ... and yeah, I do tend to take things a bit too far sometimes.



    -GoodCitizen
  • Reply 4 of 4
    sgsstatestudentsgsstatestudent Posts: 817member
    Call the police. They'll settle everything for you.
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