A clever Mac user helped police recover a stolen laptop using Back to My Mac's screen-sharing feature.
After her apartment was burglarized, the victim received a call from a friend while she was at work (conveniently enough, at the Apple Store in Westchester, NY). The friend noticed her stolen computer was online. The victim then quickly used another Mac to connect to the stolen laptop.
The article doesn't mention the technical details, but I reckon she activated screen sharing, and started Photo Booth (or another app that activates the laptop's built-in iSight camera). After a while, the perps showed up, and the victim's roommate recognized one of them as an acquaintance who had attended a party at their apartment some weeks before.
Armed with names and photos of the alleged thieves, police quickly arrested two men, who were in possession of most of the property stolen in the burglary.
If that isn't worth her year's subscription to .Mac, I don't know what is.
(Update: The New York Times has a story with some more details. She used Photo Booth, too. Who called it, baby?)
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-09-2008 @ 3:05PM
Gareth said...
Cool! Now if only I could get back to my mac working on MY mac.
Reply
5-09-2008 @ 3:34PM
Beanie said...
Yeah, that must have been the only time it worked, it usually works out that way. I still can't get BTMM to work correctly.
5-09-2008 @ 3:14PM
FoundInTheFlood said...
Hm, for real screensharing doesn't the other side have to accept it?
Isn't it like in ichat?
Reply
5-09-2008 @ 3:19PM
Dom said...
No.
5-09-2008 @ 5:36PM
brettt said...
Think about it for a second and you'll guess why not :-p
5-09-2008 @ 3:15PM
Aloysius Snuffleupagus said...
I've got an Airport only wireless network setup and Back to my Mac has never ever worked for me.
Reply
5-09-2008 @ 3:15PM
Adam said...
"If that isn't worth her year's subscription to .Mac..."
Or just get friends that don't burglarize homes.
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5-09-2008 @ 4:19PM
Dan said...
The article clearly said acquaintance, it does not say the criminals were long time friends. Whenever you throw a party theres always gonna be chance that other wil tag along that you will not know but your friends do. Luckily they were able pinpoint them down.
5-09-2008 @ 4:34PM
Adam said...
Perhaps. But these were also people that knew where they lived?
Time to get new friends or don't put your address on myspace.
5-09-2008 @ 3:32PM
brian said...
Or get this:
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
$50 to cover one Mac or $60 for five, works like the above only better because the thief is totally unaware that it's running (as opposed to "Hey! Why did PhotoBooth launch itself?") and you don't need to be awake and online 24/7 waiting for your missing Mac to show up on your buddy list.
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5-09-2008 @ 6:11PM
Bryan T said...
Heard good things about this, and yeah, what Brian said. With back to my mac, there is a chance someone could see the signals that it is being used by another person.
Although, I have never used back to my mac or undercover.
5-09-2008 @ 3:41PM
Aron T said...
Does it say who's leg she humped to get Back to My Mac working because I paid for a year of .Mac and still haven't gotten this working?
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5-09-2008 @ 3:47PM
PSM said...
Cool story. I've been wondering if BTMM is something I should bother setting up. If it works, this sounds like an even better reason to enable it.
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5-09-2008 @ 4:00PM
Johnny said...
Count me in as one of those who has never gotten it to work with ANY router or configuration I've tried.
To Robert Palmer, I think you're a great addition to this blog. You've only been posting for over a day now and you are already one of the best writers at TUAW (or any blog for that matter). Keep up the good work!
Reply
5-09-2008 @ 4:19PM
Robert Palmer said...
You're too kind, Johnny! I'm just happy to be here.
5-09-2008 @ 4:20PM
Robert Palmer said...
And it's a team effort, too -- Michael Rose and Scott McNulty are excellent editors. :)
5-09-2008 @ 4:23PM
Johnny said...
Indeed. Kudos to all!
5-09-2008 @ 4:03PM
Michael said...
This seems to be a recurring theme. A few years ago, Macworld had a story about a guy who did the same thing using Timbuktu (another remote control tool)
http://www.macworld.com/article/3187/2002/01/timbuktu.html
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5-09-2008 @ 4:11PM
George Muenz said...
I get BTMM working just fine at home. At a wi-fi powered coffee shop, it did not work, but it might be that my home iMac was sleeping. I'll check again this weekend.
A similar incident happened here in Vancouver a few months ago. The owner had settings that automatically uploaded their photobooth pictures to Flickr.
http://www.switched.com/2007/09/27/stolen-laptop-self-uploads-photo-of-suspect-to-web/
Reply
5-09-2008 @ 7:03PM
punkassjim said...
It doesn't work at coffee shops because BTMM requires uPNP to be enabled on the router. The network administrator of the coffee shop would be an idiot to enable uPNP on their router.
That being said, thank god the thieves had uPNP enabled on their router.