Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Brand New MBA stolen - I have the IP address, now what?

L

ladysun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2011
1
0
My brand new MBA was stolen out of my car, and I had not yet installed Prey or other anti-theft software, but I had installed Dropbox. I can see that my laptop has been sitting in the same IP address for a few days now, and have zeroed in on an address. The police won't help me because they say they don't have the resources and they also don't have the ability to track IP addresses (uh, hilarious, I don't even need them to do that, but I guess they don't trust my legwork).

Has anyone else had a similar situation? Also, is there another method I'm ignorant of, like remotely logging in to capture a pic of the thief? I'm need more evidence than an IP address for the police to give a crap about recovering my property.

I haven't installed anything else but Dropbox, so I guess I'm looking for remote features that would have come factory installed. Probably a long shot but I thought I'd ask you experts. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
 
P

PaulWog

Suspended
Jun 28, 2011
700
103
ladysun said:
My brand new MBA was stolen out of my car, and I had not yet installed Prey or other anti-theft software, but I had installed Dropbox. I can see that my laptop has been sitting in the same IP address for a few days now, and have zeroed in on an address. The police won't help me because they say they don't have the resources and they also don't have the ability to track IP addresses (uh, hilarious, I don't even need them to do that, but I guess they don't trust my legwork).

Has anyone else had a similar situation? Also, is there another method I'm ignorant of, like remotely logging in to capture a pic of the thief? I'm need more evidence than an IP address for the police to give a crap about recovering my property.

I haven't installed anything else but Dropbox, so I guess I'm looking for remote features that would have come factory installed. Probably a long shot but I thought I'd ask you experts. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

To be honest I'd just scout the place to see who I'm dealing with. If it's not a thug, I'd give him a knock on the door with a few of my buddies and get things done the old fashioned way.

That said... good luck with the detective work.
 
B

Beaverman3001

macrumors 6502a
May 20, 2010
554
55
If you had remote login enabled before it was stolen you could SSH into it and poke around, see if he happened to save any files/documents that you can read and figure out his address/name/etc.
 
D

da3dl3us

macrumors member
Jul 27, 2010
69
0
ladysun said:
My brand new MBA was stolen out of my car, and I had not yet installed Prey or other anti-theft software, but I had installed Dropbox. I can see that my laptop has been sitting in the same IP address for a few days now, and have zeroed in on an address. The police won't help me because they say they don't have the resources and they also don't have the ability to track IP addresses (uh, hilarious, I don't even need them to do that, but I guess they don't trust my legwork).

Has anyone else had a similar situation? Also, is there another method I'm ignorant of, like remotely logging in to capture a pic of the thief? I'm need more evidence than an IP address for the police to give a crap about recovering my property.

I haven't installed anything else but Dropbox, so I guess I'm looking for remote features that would have come factory installed. Probably a long shot but I thought I'd ask you experts. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

This is what annoys me about the law enforcement. They're always there to give you a ticket for going 10 over, but when you personally need them, they can't help you.
 
Duke15

Duke15

macrumors 6502
May 18, 2011
332
0
Canada
Ya thats BS, I'd try the cops again, if they dont help then yeah knock on the door with some buddies if the person isnt a thug, let us know if it works out! Goodluck!
 
U

UCF Sam

macrumors regular
Mar 4, 2010
172
-4
An IP is not normally going to narrow you down to a single house, even if it looks like that on an IP tracking map. How did you conclude that you have the exact address correct? The police won't be be able to track it either, they'd have to get a warrant to get that information form the ISP.
 
OneMike

OneMike

macrumors 603
Oct 19, 2005
5,832
1,810
It's a tough one.

If you think you know where the computer is. Chances are that information also gave you the ISP of the person. As map is not accurate it's no point in going to the house.

Contact your local news with the story. Didn't some guy get his laptop stolen by a cab driver or something and he snapped pictures of him using it. The cops didn't help until the news put pressure on them.

Probably won't help, but ISP isn't going to give you their info and if cops aren't helping your options are limited.
 
rworne

rworne

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2002
653
124
Los Angeles
Here's what to do:

Yes, they are overworked. But every detective loves a case that can be solved quickly and with little effort.

1. Start with the IP address. Use that to get the ISP. Collect the ISP's contact info. There's no sense in calling the ISP, they will do nothing for you.

2. With this info, call the detective working your case. Tell them the laptop has been on the Internet, you have the "address" and ISP. If the authorities call the ISP, they can get the home address and name of the person who owns the account.

3. Now it is a simple matter of sending an officer over with a warrant to get the device.

Make the job easy for them. If they know they can recover it easily they will be much more inclined to help you out.
 
B

bp1000

macrumors 65832
Jul 7, 2011
1,502
249
If you think you know the address yourself just go round there with some mates and get it back.
 
B

bwphoto

macrumors member
May 2, 2006
68
0
Ahh crap dude, that sux. Call the media. But also consider the odds it is sitting in a house after being sold on Craigslist. Or the IP actually belongs to an old lady with unsecured wifi and the computer is actually in the house next door?

If you can get pix of the user that would help scenario 2. You knock on the door and: "what? no we don't have a laptop..." so then you and your pals turn around and walk home like losers. Best to match the face at the door w/ the computer's user.

Sure, it's valuable to you and $1,000+ is not insignificant to the average chump, but cops don't care because nobody is bleeding and $1,000 damage isn't enough to get a lawyer to make them care.
 
rworne

rworne

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2002
653
124
Los Angeles
bwphoto said:
Ahh crap dude, that sux. Call the media. But also consider the odds it is sitting in a house after being sold on Craigslist. Or the IP actually belongs to an old lady with unsecured wifi and the computer is actually in the house next door?

If you can get pix of the user that would help scenario 2. You knock on the door and: "what? no we don't have a laptop..." so then you and your pals turn around and walk home like losers. Best to match the face at the door w/ the computer's user.

Sure, it's valuable to you and $1,000+ is not insignificant to the average chump, but cops don't care because nobody is bleeding and $1,000 damage isn't enough to get a lawyer to make them care.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if it was sold. Stolen property is stolen property. The police will still take it and return it to the proper owner.

Even if the neighbors had unsecured wi-fi, it doesn't take a genius to figure out it's a neighbor.

Still, this is a lesson to take heed of: there are plenty of paid and free theft monitoring software for computers. Install it before it's too late.
 
B

bp1000

macrumors 65832
Jul 7, 2011
1,502
249
In fairness the last thing on my mind after getting a new MBA would be to install anti theft first.

I will perhaps make sure i do tomorrow. That's if i make it from the store to my car. This city is pretty rough.
 
B

bwphoto

macrumors member
May 2, 2006
68
0
rworne said:
It doesn't matter if it was sold. Stolen property is stolen property. The police will still take it and return it to the proper owner.

Even if the neighbors had unsecured wi-fi, it doesn't take a genius to figure out it's a neighbor.

Still, this is a lesson to take heed of: there are plenty of paid and free theft monitoring software for computers. Install it before it's too late.
Click to expand...

All true. I was envisioning the suggested results of vigilante justice. I wouldn't feel right beating the crap out of some poor guy that thought he was getting a square deal off CL. And you're right, it doesn't take a genius. But it takes more effort than the police are going to put into it. Kinda like when they found His Dudeness's car. "Leads?! hahahaha..."

Thanks to the poster w/ the antitheft software suggestions. Not a bad idea.
 
N

NurJahan

macrumors member
May 22, 2011
58
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Can you suggest some antitheft programs? This is my first mac
 
Elven

Elven

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2008
862
1
UK
Violence is the answer only to those with small minds, karma will deal with them, move on learn from lives lesson and stay well.
 
marksman

marksman

macrumors 603
Jun 4, 2007
5,764
5
UCF Sam said:
An IP is not normally going to narrow you down to a single house, even if it looks like that on an IP tracking map. How did you conclude that you have the exact address correct? The police won't be be able to track it either, they'd have to get a warrant to get that information form the ISP.
Click to expand...

Yeah short of actually working for the ISP they use there is no way to track a specific address to an ip? Perhaps he cracked their wireless network and found an ip that way.

Still seems unlikely given the amount of work it would take.

I would just get all the infos on his cars and then follow him around and wait for him to leave the laptop in his car and take it back.

If the cops aren't going to help the legitimate owner get it back, they certainly will not bother to help an illegitimate owner get it back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom