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macbook pro stolen. any advice?

T

tkjazzer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 30, 2004
252
0
Hello,

My macbook pro was stolen today when I stepped away from my desk for 30 minutes. I got a police report and have the serial number and am trying to find out the MAC number (and unfortunately didn't have a program like undercover installed). I'm going to look at pawn shops, but does anyone have any other advice?
 
tkjazzer said:
Hello,

My macbook pro was stolen today when I stepped away from my desk for 30 minutes. I got a police report and have the serial number and am trying to find out the MAC number (and unfortunately didn't have a program like undercover installed). I'm going to look at pawn shops, but does anyone have any other advice?
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Any security cameras looking over your desk? Any people nearby that may have witnessed?
 
i interviewed everyone. it was friday afternoon and people were leaving early. No one was in the room that it was stolen from when I returned. It sucks.
 
tkjazzer said:
i interviewed everyone. it was friday afternoon and people were leaving early. No one was in the room that it was stolen from when I returned. It sucks.
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There's not much you can really do about getting it back, I should think it's long gone by now. You should concentrate on a replacement.

Any chance that your employer will get you a knew one seeing as the incident happened on his/her/their premises? Maybe it's covered under their insurance?
 
if the guy hasnt changed the mac address i suppose you can track him if he accesses the internet...however it takes a lot of resources and time to do that.
 
For your next mac get a safetycord that enables you to tie the machine down to a spot. I got that for mine and it enables you to step away from the machine without fear of someone just putting it under their shirt.
 
Just curious: does Apple have a registry of reported-stolen Apple products, maybe by serial number? Not that they would actively track down what happened to a stolen item, but at the very least it would be interesting if you could report a serial number of an item you've registered as stolen, and at the very least it would raise a flag if someone later called in with that serial number asking for say, a repair or support issue, or tries to download a non-critical software update.

A number of mobile phone carriers have this capability, to "blacklist" stolen mobile handsets by IMEI/ESN/MEID. Again it's not for active tracking, but when used correctly, it severely limits the usability of the stolen handset when the carrier, and any partners that honor the blacklist, refuse service.
 
My advice:
Purchase a new one and don't walk away from it ever. Get a desk lock for it if you are even going to turn your back for 1 second. Checking pawn shops and ebay are good ideas, but I wouldn't expect getting your computer back.
 
Get a license for Undercover, from Orbicule Software, here.

I have used their product for several years now, and while I have never had to use it, it gives me some peace of mind knowing that if someone did steal my MBP (or other Mac that I have the software installed on) they would be able to help me recover it.

I especially like the way they can now access the built in iSight to get pictures of the perps, too.

Sorry about your loss.

MD
 
MacDann said:
Get a license for Undercover, from Orbicule Software, here.
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Do you really think recover software increases your chances of recover (I'm actually asking, it's not a rhetorical question)? If I where to steal a computer, the first thing I'd do is format the hard drive. Won't this render the software useless?
 
grapes911 said:
Do you really think recover software increases your chances of recover (I'm actually asking, it's not a rhetorical question)? If I where to steal a computer, the first thing I'd do is format the hard drive. Won't this render the software useless?
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It's not 100% foolproof, but if you read through their site you'll see a number of ways you can minimize the likelihood that a thief will get past it.

Keep in mind that in many cases, the people stealing these aren't computer geeks, either. For that matter, I would suspect that the majority of them are somewhat lacking in intelligence.

:rolleyes:

MD
 
Do you think your average crook would be smart enough to format a hard drive? Or even waste their time to do it? They probably took it just to make some money off it.
 
grapes911 said:
Do you really think recover software increases your chances of recover (I'm actually asking, it's not a rhetorical question)? If I where to steal a computer, the first thing I'd do is format the hard drive. Won't this render the software useless?
Click to expand...

A format of the disk would render the software useless, however, on their site, Orbicule states that every user should enable the Open Firmware password (or whatever its called on intel Mac's). With that on, there is no way that anyone will boot off of anything but your primary boot disk. That way, Undercover can do its job free.
 
powermax.com is supposed to have a database of stolen macs, i think. at least according to this it does:

http://coconut-flavour.com/coconutidentitycard/index.html


I doubt you'll get it back. If you filed a police report, you might be able to get insurance to replace it or at least give you some money. That happened to a friend of mine once. He then ended up with a newer pbook revision than me....
 
jng said:
I doubt you'll get it back.
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Don't give up entirely. It's very difficult to recover things if the thief is at all competent but a lot of them aren't. Case in point, my aunt's iBook, stolen from her home. We figured it was a lost cause. A few days later, the people who broke into her house were caught in another house a couple of blocks down her street. They actually had my aunt's iBook in a backpack! Of course it took the cops several additional days to match it up with my aunt, by which time she'd replaced it with a MacBook. As a teacher she couldn't wait.

Just goes to show, with a little common stupidity and a lot of luck you could see your machine again. You seem to be on the right track, having given the cops all the relevant information.
 
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