Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Information about my stolen macbook

This post was made with the recommendation of the Reddit community, following this post:
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8ib4y/dear_reddit_some_douchebag_stole_my_brand_new/

Hey guys,

First and foremost, I want to thank you all for your support.
I will be posting updates here regarding my macbook and whatever new info comes up.

The MacBook is last generation, 13/2.0/2X1GB/160/SD
I bought it in October 2008, right when they came out.

I just moved with my wife to my new (and first) house last thursday, and the laptop was stolen between Friday morning and Sunday night (when I did realise it wasn't there).

I held off on calling the cops until today, because of all the boxes in the house. I didn't want to make a mistake and end up finding it between two boxes.
Now I am certain it isn't in the house.

There is no infraction in the house. So it has to be either the DirecTV guys who setup the satellite dish, or one of my friends (they're all my best friends, and have been exposed to all my technological devices for years now, even when I wasn't home. They all passed the trust test a LONG time ago).

So far, this is what I've done:
- Contacted Apple, gave them my Serial#, but they said they can't track it down.
- Contacted the police, but will have to do it again after work, tonight, so they can pass by when I'm home.
- Contacted DirecTV to get the employee's name of whoever setup the service (just got an employee number)
- Scoured Craigslist.org and EBay

Things I am thinking of doing:
- Contacting google to get all the IP addresses used to access Gmail last week.
- Do the same with Yahoo.

I will keep you all posted.

Thank you all again for your support.

Edit:
I am starting an open source project on Github.com
It's called "Theft Hammer". It's got nothing in the repo yet.
http://github.com/jonaphin/Theft-Hammer/tree/master

Help me define what it should be and let's do it. I'd like it to be compatible with Linux/Mac/Windows (Mono-based maybe?)

Edit #2:
Checked Gmail's activity log. It only shows me the last two hours on my account. And since I changed my password, no good information will show there.

Edit #3: http://www.reddit.com/user/AxiomShell/ This guy just helped me a great deal! Look at his comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8ib4y/dear_reddit_some_douchebag_stole_my_brand_new/c09df4s

I just have to figure out if the IP on the mac listed is current. This is what it says:

genevieve-mac 2 months ago (76.26.58.254)

Genevieve's my wife btw...

Edit #4: I just contacted getdropbox.com 's customer service by email. I'm going to forward the Reddit post to them. Let's see if that helps a bit.


Posted by at

28 comments:

  1. NielsMay 6, 2009 at 8:58 AM

    You whore your plight on Reddit, ask for help and then set up this blog and plaster it full of ads!? Really slick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 9:01 AM

    Hey, he needs money for a new MacBook!

    ReplyDelete
  3. gerondeMay 6, 2009 at 9:18 AM

    i just fed it off of a previous blog template. I'll remove them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 9:31 AM

    "Niels said...
    You whore your plight on Reddit, ask for help and then set up this blog and plaster it full of ads!? Really slick."

    That is on the fishy side..

    Plus, geronde is only a 10-day-old reddit user name.

    Just sayin...

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 9:40 AM

    on the blog it says contact google to see all the IP's, google has this feture already. go right down to the bottom, under where it says how much space is being used there should be somthing along the lines of : Last account activity: 22 minutes ago on this computer. Details.

    click on details. simples!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 9:46 AM

    Hey man, good luck. Checked pawn shops nearby?

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    You can view recent gmail account activity from the 'details' link at the bottom of the page.

    ReplyDelete
  8. gerondMay 6, 2009 at 10:12 AM

    Thanks for the details.

    It only shows up to 2 hours activity, and it all looks alright...

    ReplyDelete
  9. GerondeMay 6, 2009 at 10:15 AM

    I did not check the Pawn Shops yet. It's something I will do.

    ReplyDelete
  10. GerondeMay 6, 2009 at 10:18 AM

    "geronde is only a 10-day-old reddit user name."

    Yes it's true. But I've been a Redditor (almost exclusively) for about 2 years now.

    ReplyDelete
  11. TommyMacMay 6, 2009 at 11:22 AM

    What do you want to bet it's at the bottom of an overlooked moving box somewhere?

    http://virtualsink.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. GerondeMay 6, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    I wish...

    ReplyDelete
  13. HedgecoreMay 6, 2009 at 11:52 AM

    I'd worry more about old fashioned detective work than an OpenSource project at the moment...

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 1:19 PM

    This doesn't help you now, but if you get the computer back you might want install

    Adeona - Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop

    http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 1:52 PM

    The solution is called "Home Owner's Insurance". You pay the deductable, but I'm sure it's less than a new Macbook :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 2:45 PM

    76.26.58.254 is a comcast ip.

    call comcast, ask them to help you out. :)

    i'll probably get in contact with them for you in a bit :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. HedgecoreMay 6, 2009 at 3:02 PM

    Anonymous: It's obvious that you've opted for "Home Owner's Insurance" over medical insurance; with 20/20 hindsight like that, I doubt you'll have any vision problems for a while.

    Then again, maybe you'd like to have an MRI done, the part of your brain that favours justice/revenge seems to be a little atrophied.

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 4:28 PM

    If you have the IP address of the ISP you were last connected with, most likely they have the MAC address of your laptop (unless you went through a wireless / wired router) on their DHCP server. With the MAC address, you could inform them that this device is stolen and to please keep an eye out for it. The chances are slim that something might come of it, but it's worth a try...

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 6:10 PM

    I am not convinced anything was stolen.

    Can you show us a police report? If you don't, we will know this is all a sham.

    ReplyDelete
  20. jaydizzMay 6, 2009 at 6:49 PM

    well we got played by your little thought experiment. gerond is a verified troll

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 7:43 PM

    You can't track by MAC address unless you're on the same network segment as that computer. The gateway will use its own MAC to relay any request outside of the computer's subnet. Blah Blah Blah...

    ReplyDelete
  22. AnonymousMay 6, 2009 at 9:19 PM

    Sigh. All Apple can do with your serial number is Find who the computer is registered and check repair history. Whenever apple does a repair or you call apple they add a note to the repair history of your serial number. It is only possible to track the laptop if the guy brings it in for repair or whoever he unloads it too does.

    I work as an apple tech and the cops contacted us about a stolen laptop recently because we had done a repair on the computer. But the people who brought it in had bought stolen property and not known it.

    Call Apple with your serial number and Make sure that the serial number is registered to you. If not register it on the phone. When you do this make sure you give them an email address and say that you want all communication sent to that email. Then if anyone ever gets it fixed apple will email you asking you how your repair experience was at Location X repair place or Apple store. Then you have a lead.

    That is the only advice I can give you as an apple tech.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Jeremy SchneiderMay 6, 2009 at 9:31 PM

    Instead of all these edits, why not just make new posts? Then people can subscribe via their RSS readers or whatever.

    ReplyDelete
  24. RobotSoulMay 6, 2009 at 9:37 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  25. RobotSoulMay 6, 2009 at 9:39 PM

    Here is an article from the latest Newsweek about a man who had his laptop stolen and how he got it back. Maybe there are some ideas in it you can use:

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/195408

    ReplyDelete
  26. HedgecoreMay 6, 2009 at 9:47 PM

    Anonymous: A sham eh? One of three things will happen. It was stolen and we never find the culprit. It was stolen and we find the culprit and the internet at large know all about them. It wasn't stolen, it may not exist, and we find out all of Geronde's info. Geronde knows this... If there's any apprehension to provide personal details on his part, it's because he doesn't want some fat fuck in a Starwars shirt searching through his garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Jorg HeymansMay 7, 2009 at 4:03 AM

    It's a bit late to mention this, but to 'protect' your future mac hardware against theft you should definitely checkout Orbicule (http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/), specifically designed for the situation you've got at hand.

    ReplyDelete
  28. GerondeMay 7, 2009 at 5:02 AM

    I made the police report last night.
    I'll see if i can scan it from work and post it.

    I understand if some of you guys are skeptical. I would be too.

    Just so you guys know, though, my post on reddit was my first, and I never expected all the replies and support.

    I really just started this because I knew that if anyone could help me, it's the people from Reddit. That's all.

    ReplyDelete

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