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Nan just got burgled - Help me track the laptop
- Thread starter ChocolateStarfishRammer
- Start date
I reckon it was probably passed on to a dodgy second hand goods electrical retailer, cash convertors type place.
Its likely that some of them know full well they are buying stolen goods, so are likely well versed in how to strip a laptop down to ensure there is no trace of it, both on themselves and to their new customer.
There are loads of places I've seen like that in London and they usually tend to be next to areas with high rates of crime.
One near me which is an absolute dive, complete with a box of jumbled up phone chargers outside the door had a MacBook Pro in the window recently. There was no way anyone took that into there who genuinely owned it!
Its likely that some of them know full well they are buying stolen goods, so are likely well versed in how to strip a laptop down to ensure there is no trace of it, both on themselves and to their new customer.
There are loads of places I've seen like that in London and they usually tend to be next to areas with high rates of crime.
One near me which is an absolute dive, complete with a box of jumbled up phone chargers outside the door had a MacBook Pro in the window recently. There was no way anyone took that into there who genuinely owned it!
Soldato
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Wow, log me in is a piece of crud for this sort of stuff then.
To be fair this isn't the primary use of Logmein - its perfect for remotely controlling your own laptop, its not so ideal to trying to recover a stolen laptop.
Soldato
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Hang on
Someone steals a laptop, boots it up and connects to their internet?
Surely the first thing you do is either remove the HDD, or at the very least a low level format. Sounds like he was quite in the know by killing running processes so makes me wonder if he's having a look around on the laptop for something.
Not good though mate, hope you get it sorted through the insurance
Someone steals a laptop, boots it up and connects to their internet?
Surely the first thing you do is either remove the HDD, or at the very least a low level format. Sounds like he was quite in the know by killing running processes so makes me wonder if he's having a look around on the laptop for something.
Not good though mate, hope you get it sorted through the insurance
Good idea. Worth a try.
Soldato
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I too am surprised they took it online...
Man of Honour
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Not really. The IP address isn't particularly useful.
Depends how serious you are about pursuing it tho even then without other evidence like web-cam shots of someone playing with it it would be hard to get anywhere with legal action unless it tied in with another case in progress.
Man of Honour
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Indeed. An IP address in itself isn't useful. Having a picture of a suspect that you need to match to an address is another thing.
Will the police not chase an ISP for an address if they have solid evidence of an IP? I mean if Logmein supply a log file? surely the laptop connecting to Logmein's servers using the OP's account at a particular location is proof enough that the IP holder has (or had) possession of the laptop?
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Man of Honour
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TBH, no they won't. Most Police Officers aren't that tech savvy and even ones that are would say that it's a bit of a long shot.
No, even if you had a tech savvy police officer - only their computer forensics department investigates things like that and if it's just one burglary then it wouldn't be worth the resources.
Man of Honour
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That's not necessarily true, other officers can investigate this other than specialists, dependant on Force.
I'll also repeat that burglaries are priority crimes for most forces and they are treated seriously.
It must depend on region then. Because after experiencing a burglarly last year myself and had a lot of items taken away, I don't think remember hearing back from them and after querying about it the case was closed due to insufficient evidence.
Burglaries are also quite rare in my area and are around 10% of the overall total crimes, so yeah totally dependent on area and burglary frequency. Linking them together is something altogether.
As I said above, if its a dodgy cash convertors shop, they aren't going to be replacing bits or wiping harddrives and finding new software to re-install afterwards. They are just going to check it works, clear it down and remove anything which makes it obvious it belonged to somebody else and then sell it on.
As for the IP address, the reason why the Police won't do anything about that is because its too much hassle to try and investigate. What hasn't changed is the fact that the insurance company will just pay out for a new laptop anyway, so its not worth their time.