There's something very very wrong with the city of Oakland. I lived there for one year, before moving to SF and while everybody told me I should constantly be watching my back, I mostly ignored it and was fine. But after I moved to SF, I found myself in Oakland for a party and sure enough, with a couple friends, I got myself mugged at gunpoint by three scary-looking local gangsters.

The scary part, though, is the cops' handling of the situation. Luckily for me, I was quick enough to react and hide away my most important item, my iPhone 4. As soon as they were gone (within 30s) I called the cops, and soon thereafter we had 5 squad cars show up. They interrogated us and made us write statements, but would not send a car after the suspects, who had fled in a direction we had indicated to them. After telling us there's no chance they'd recover our stolen stuff, they took off. We asked for a ride back to the bart station, to the police station, anywhere (it was night in a shady part of Oakland. We had nothing… no money for a cab, and we sure as hell didn't want to walk alone around Oakland.) They just refused, saying they had "other shit to do" and left.

The fact that I got mugged at gunpoint in Oakland comes as no surprise to me—I shouldn't have been there in the first place. However, the police's blatant incompetence came as a terrifying shock.

So this happened to me in Feb.

I had my MBP taken with http://preyproject.com/ installed. Now I live outside the US , (in Ireland) and while the police where helpful & curious about how the tech worked, they just did not do anything, even though I got a photo of the guy, his first name and geo location of his apartment block in the first week.

So 3 months later, and although I'm still watching the guy watching porn on my laptop, I have built up a substantial profile of him, through persistent (obsessive according to my girlfriend) tracking.

So just this week I passed on the following details to the cops - fullname - email - phone number - postal address - bank account no - online betting account no - lots of photos of him and his flatmates/friends.

They were kinda shocked I was still on the case, but said they will dispatch someone to go pick up the laptop this week.

So my advice; if you stick with it, and hand them the case on a plate it might work out.

If some guy had my MacBook, and I did this, I would generally include details like, I don't know, my name and contact email or phone number. You know, so the Mayor's office or Police Department PR people could reach out to me, or others might help me ("hey - that's Joe from Flat 3") retrieve it.

Unless, this guy had my MacBook in a viral ad campaign that is.

Edit: Here's the owner of the MacBook http://twitter.com/#!/jmk He seems real, but he does work for an agency that specialises in interactive ad campaigns.

I hate to be the Devil's advocate in a case involving a stolen laptop (I regard stealing my laptop as a crime even lower than stealing my bicycle), but I'm more than a little troubled by the idea of plastering someone's face and private life (such as the inside of their home) on the Internet before they have been convicted of a crime.

Sure, we could say "Yeah, but this software let the blog author see them absconding with the laptop," but debating the evidence is conducting a trial of sorts, without giving the accused the benefit of a chance to cross-examine their accusers and present their side of the story.

I'm very comfortable with the idea of using software like this to gather evidence, and I'm very comfortable with criticizing the police for failing to act, but I'm not comfortable with publishing these pictures.

For a free and open-source alternative to Hidden, try: http://preyproject.com/

It supports all the major OS's, including phones.

Seems that this is the guy whose laptop was stolen: http://unraveled.com/

Nothing about him working for whoever makes the Hidden app, though it's hard to find info about exactly who makes that app on their web page. I still can't tell if it's legit.

EDIT: He works for ExactTarget (http://www.exacttarget.com/) which is a marketing firm that does social media stuff among other things. Seems pretty likely to be an ad for the app. Or a huge coincidence.

A nice free alternative to Hidden: http://preyproject.com/

So many context clues in the pictures.

Guy's probably Muslim, for example. Looks like he might be of Arab descent. (Third pic has "Muhammed" and "Allah" on the wall written and framed in Arabic).

Was anyone else reminded of this Defcon video (Don't Mess with a Hacker's Machine)?

http://goo.gl/7y6mD

hmm.. for some reason it feels like a viral ad for that Hidden app.

The reason this makes me (and others by the looks of it) suspicious that this is a well made ad for the app, is that if it shows where the macbook is, why not just go get it, i certainly would, with a couple of my larger friends.

What I don't get about these programs (for desktops/laptops) is...do you guys have passwords on your user accounts? And if so, they must have somehow cracked them to get access.

In that case, I know if I was going to steal a laptop, the first thing I'd do is format it. Do any of the programs remain after a hard disk wipe?

Also, for those using the Prey panel - why does it have an option to save your password? If you're still logged in when the thief makes off with your laptop, and he has any knowledge of these kind of programs, they'll just log in and deactivate your account or change settings.

I wish Hidden's site had more information. I don't want to pay until I can find out more - like, can I schedule how often the system takes screenshots and photos with the camera? Will it store screenshots and try to do a bulk upload if the laptop isn't online at the time of screenshot? Does it run even if nobody is logged in? etc., etc.

Just suggest that you might possibly have seen some kind of green/white stuff in a little baggie on the table in one of the pictures. The cops will be there in 10 minutes.

Does really the HN community find this story interesting? I wish I knew the psychological reasons behind that massive upvoting

Today is May 31, the MacBook was stolen on March 21... enough days to sell the thing to someone else, don't you think?

Seems like the guy has his mac back. http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/police-nab-lapt...

https://twitter.com/jmk/status/75766707834200064

Arrested

Why did he blur out the guy's google username?

I enjoy how the alleged "stolen" macbook pro has absolutely nothing on the dock. This story is becoming less and less realistic and more and more like a plug of "Hidden".

It's got to be really frustrating, knowing where your laptop is but not being able to have the police get it.

Any lawyers want to chime in on whether the owner has a right to reclaim his property legally? May be if it is in plain sight in the public?

This is unbelievable. Great app...I wish there was something like this for my bike, but whatever "that" would be, would probably get stolen.

A question. Is there a way for anyone to know their laptop is taking photos of them? Be it a Mac or a PC. And is there a way to know if my computer is transmitting those images. I wonder whether such apps can be installed by malicious individuals to spy on people.

This is the guy's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/#!/jmk

I don't think it's a fake. He works for ExactTarget, an e-mail marketing services company.

Why post the guys picture but blur out his google account info?

Glad to hear this guy has been caught.

  http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/06/01/6763712-police-arrest-macbook-thief-caught-on-camera-by-victim

QUESTION: If I was a guy that bought a second hand Mac, how can I make sure that I was not being watched? This issues a new privacy concern too.

Good to know that OPD has arrested the bastard. :)

When you've activated the Hidden app, and the computer is taking pictures, does the little green light turn on when the camera is on?

Someone suggested posting the car image on vwvortex or a similar car forum to have the users identify the make, model, and year

I'm curious if there is anything like this available for the iPad 2. Does anyone know?

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showcased and most read article on BBC news. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13624265

It looks like he got it back. That's nice to hear in the end.

Are there any open source alternatives to the Hidden app?

Great story! I'll have to check out Hidden now.

Brought to you by Flipcode Ltd., the makers of Hidden.

(I don't know that for sure, but it certainly seems that way, and there are very few details on the site, particularly a disclosure.)

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How does this Hidden app work? Any ideas?

Since when is stolen computer hacker news? A clever marketing campaign on the other hand would be of course quite an interesting submission

Very clever use of technology.

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I reported the crime to the police and even told them where it was, but they can't help me due to lack of resources.

They must be too busy installing illegal exhaust systems on their police Harleys (http://motorcycles.about.com/b/2008/06/16/oakland-motorcycle...).

Sorry to be off-topic. As a former Oakland resident, it's the first thing that comes to mind when I hear Oakland PD. Seriously, though, if you can provide the exact location of your stolen property, how can the police not see tremendous value in following up on it?

This app just makes people worry even more. Worry is bad. Worry kills you from the inside. Leave it behind and carry on.

Also, get something not worth stealing then you don't have to worry about it. Anyone half decent can be productive on a piece of junk.

If you have something valuable or desirable, you have to spend $15 on an app to track it, deal with insurance companies, deal with the police, buy a burglar alarm to keep your premiums down, buy gates to protect your house, worry about getting mugged, worry about leaving it somewhere, worry about status etc.

It is just not worth it.

I live in the knowledge that if someone decided to nick my laptop, they would be seriously disappointed (and I'd be 80GBP down rather than 1000GBP + all the above down). Ironically I left it in a McDonalds in London for 2 hours and it was still there when I realised and went back. Even the staff left it there and cleaned around it.

--Something unexpected surprise--

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I'd put electrical tape on the vid if I wanted to check out what I just acquired,and re-install soon after..

How did you make sure that that guy didn't get your laptop from somebody else?

He just tweeted that they caught the guy.

Beautiful

Mark Bao tried to pull one of these promotional stunts once.

I'm totally down to go gangbusters on this dude and help get this laptop back, FWIW.

Crime solved - your laptop was stolen by Deuce Bigalow, male gigolo

Genius marketing. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is a fake tumblr account made with the sole purpose of getting traffic to the app website. Excellent execution then :)

If you can afford a MacBook you can afford to be a vigilante and pay whatever fine there is for that.