a long Strange Story, but iMac confiscated by cops, harddrive messed up?

[kuebby]

Getting your stuff taken by the cops definitely sucks. I had a bunch of electronics taken by the cops in Nov 09 and I just got most of it back last month (iMac, netbook, 1tb external). I'm still waiting to get my iPhone back because the detective in charge of my case is kind of a b.

Fortunately I got my stuff back, and in relatively good shape too, the iMac just has some minor cosmetic damage on the aluminum casing. But I definitely understand your situation, I was so nervous before I got it back that it was going to be totally trashed.

 

[WilliamG]

I think everyone who poo-pooed the OP should apologize, and to the OP - seriously - get your attorney to claim damages for the stuff destroyed.

 

[iMikeT]

So its a weird long story but I will get it out of the way. I got my first iMac early last year, about this time I believe, still ice on the ground. I was really happy with it, was living with 3 other guys in a big house we were all renting out in a fenced in duplex neighborhood that used to be military housing but was now open for public renters.

It was one day in june, the 21st as I remember it. I came home and there was a man on the porch with a gun, he asked if I lived there, I said yes and he asked me to come inside. So Im sitting there on my couch watching 7 or 8 officers rummaging through the house, looking at the modem, the router carrying down all of our computers. A woman introduced herself as a detective with the Alaskan Computer Crime Division. She asked me some basic questions, asked who else lived there, when I finally got the nerve to ask what it was all about, she said that it had to do with somebody downloading CP, well I was shocked to say the least. The next two hours of interrogation and rifling was a nightmare come true. They put every disc, thumbdrive, cell phone in homeland security bags, and threw it all in the 4Chan Party Van parked on the lawn and took off.

The next 9 monthes were a schizophrenic nightmare, thinking that at any moment, I was going to be hauled off to prison. My lawyer assured me in cases such as this, Innocent people don't usually do time, if theres nothing to hide, your golden. As was the case...

Fast foreward to 2 weeks ago, we got the call our stuff was all clear, and a military guy who hacked into our router was arrested and charged. Well, we got our stuff back, in a slightly ravaged manner, my roomates windows pc doesn't work, they tore apart the Graphics card (why?) and broke a sata drive connector on the HD itself. They took a xbox, voided the warrenty by ripping it open and broke the hard drive release button. A missing netbook later I feared for my Mac, when I got it back it seemed fine, they obviously had to take off the screen to get to the HD, theres a few drops of glue or maybe water on the inside of the glass, and now the performance of the iMac seems horrible, its always stopping to load, I wiped the disk for fear of spy software, and reinstalled OSX, it still is just horrible. Should I just get a new HD? Could their investigation caused it, or the internals to become less then proficient as it was before? Just a story and a question, thanks.

-VonDoom

Wow, what a situation indeed. I know and feel exactly where you're coming from. Though I have never experienced and hope never to experience a raid into my house or the seizure of my property. I have had my run in with over zealous law enforcement officers that are looking for something that isn't there. I know what that feeling of rape that you describe is like and what it's like to feel helpless while these clowns abuse their power, especially when you did not do anything. I can honestly say that the people I trust least in this country are those that brandish a gun and badge. But this is really another point for another topic...

As for your stuff.... I would say that you are fortunate to get it back. However, it's too bad that it came back to you in the condition that a child would have treated it. Definitely consult your attorney about replacing your iMac. It's not right for them to seize your property and return it to you in terrible shape. Hell, even if you buy an iMac at a yard sale, you'll get it in decent condition!

 

[plathunter]

Hey OP
Now for the fun question did you suspect or accuse any of your roomates of child porn?
Did any of them suspect you?
Did it ruin any relationships with your roomates?

 

[Fishrrman]

One "moral of the story":

Wired is more secure than wireless.

Ain't no wireless in my house -- it's ALL wired.

Even for my sister's Macbook downstairs, I took a 75' Ethernet cable and manually ran it from the upstairs to the downstairs for her to plug into when she wants to be online.

When I turn on my MacBook Pro, several wireless networks show up, a few totally unprotected.

But it's hard for a hacker to break into your network when it's all wired!

 

[gnasher729]

As another person said, you should contact your attorney again about all the damaged equipment. Since no one in the house was guilty of anything, I feel that you should be entitled to get your stuff back in the same condition as they took it. I see that justice was served, but at who's expense?

Your feeling is right, but as long as the police had a proper search warrant, and he can't prove any intentional damage, the OP will be stuck with the damages and nobody is going to pay for it.

I would recommend going to an Apple Store and ask them whether they can have a good look at the MacBook, which was damaged through no fault of the owner. Probably not on a day when they have long iPad queues outside.

 

[smithrh]

Ahhh... even though I've been here a _long_ time (lurking pre-dates my registration by a long shot), I've never had the pleasure of running into this character before.

Mods need to ban in this case, I think. I know I've been warned for far far far far less than what this person just did. While I'm sure Arn doesn't mind some jackass posters as drives more people to post and it drives traffic up, this is beyond the pale.

 

[henry2]

The really bad part of this post it is happening more and more than the people know about around the country ..The crazy part when you bring up this up subect to people and they go it not ging to happen to them and there system .

Like the one person said it better to be wired inside the house and not have a wireless sysem set up inside the house ..

 

[notjustjay]

The really bad part of this post it is happening more and more than the people know about around the country ..The crazy part when you bring up this up subect to people and they go it not ging to happen to them and there system .

Like the one person said it better to be wired inside the house and not have a wireless sysem set up inside the house ..

Having someone download CP on your network may sound far fetched, but there are plenty of other things that could happen: they could sit behind your network to send spam or hate mail, or to hack someone's servers. They could download other kinds of illegal material, or even use up your bandwidth downloading legitimate things.

If they're on your network, they can see your network traffic. They may be able to capture passwords. With more and more devices using "Bonjour" style technology, they will be able to see devices such as your computers and file servers. They may even be able to print to your network printer or start playing music on your home speaker network.

Use a wired network or put a password on your wireless.

 

[bossxii]

To the OP, sorry to hear this happened. Talk about crazy indeed. Aside from he lawyer to help I would suggest using two simple steps to help secure you wifi network. First, use WPA2 vs WEP as WEP is easy to hack. Secondly use MAC filtering to be sure what computers and devices are connecting to your network. These will help secure it a fair bit better then WEP on its own.

Good luck with your Mac.

 

[DrDomVonDoom]

Hey OP
Now for the fun question did you suspect or accuse any of your roomates of child porn?
Did any of them suspect you?
Did it ruin any relationships with your roomates?

Actually not really,

One roomate, perhaps...he was the odd fellow out as he wasn't a good friend of mine and the others were.

Roomate #2 I have known since Middle School, but the cops had said the perp had been using Limewire, and I knew for a fact that #2 used limewire a lot for porn, he was candid about it, and it didn't seem suspicious. So the thought was there but....eh, I gave him the benefit of the doubt at least until the cops came back for him.

Roomate #3 Maaaaybe, but he was pretty Anti-Limewire as he caught some bad malware that ****ed up his windows machine pretty bad. He isnt that....'computer savvy' he doesn't know what irc is, or how it works, I am not sure he would know how to go about getting CP.



We are all still close friends, except for Roomate 1, he never was a close friend, and me and him never got along well. As for what they thought of me? I dunno. It never got weird, maybe the first week because no one wanted to stay at the house, that night we all went to our parents and left the house. That house was haunted, we had two warrents and searches, and a few noise complaints, and a drunk fight outside, which I didnt even know of, though it resulted in my 09' trucks window getting smashed, while I was asleep.

Now I have my own personal internet service, my roomate has a wireless card. So I can at least protect myself from such events, and be able to keep a secure connection.

Personally I don't want money but I would settle for a personal apology from the GI who dragged us all into this, wrecked our lives for a few months, created a doubt in the minds of friends, and our parents. You can't buy that kind of humiliation back.

and let the trolls troll, thats all their good for.

 

[DD4]

Why were you downloading CP? Thats sick.

 

[GGJstudios]

Why were you downloading CP? Thats sick.

He wasn't. Try reading threads before you post in them.