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Stolen U.C. Berkeley Laptop Recovered
linuxwrangler writes "Following up on a previous Slashdot story, the laptop with personal data on 98,000 former U.C. Berkeley grad students which was stolen in March has been recovered. Shuki Alburati, A San Francisco State freshman who makes money selling computers and cell-phones online, says he bought the laptop for $300 from a woman who fits the description of the suspect in the original theft. The drive was reformatted and investigators can't tell if the personal info was accessed but they have believed all along that the thief was only interested in the computer. Alburati, who says he was suspicious of someone looking to sell an expensive laptop so cheaply, nonetheless took the woman's word that laptop was not stolen. He then resold the laptop on eBay for $1,159 - just $18,805 short of his bail after police arrested him."
It's illegal to buy a laptop from someone if it turns out that laptop was stolen, even if you didn't know that when you bought it? Is it also illegal for me to think that's excessive?
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However, said Froshling is SCUM. To buy a $2000+ laptop ($2500, but how old?) (X40 IBM) laptop for $300? He KNEW it was stolen. He's being nothing more than a fence with an EBay account. And he'll get off with just a misdemenor. SCUM!
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I got arrested for buying a stolen Army laptop, except I didn't get a good deal. I paid basically full price but it was still new in the box. I think that was the only thing that saved my ass. This guy may be in a little trouble for "receiving stolen property". RSP is pretty hard to prove but usually the biggest factor is getting too good of a deal on something. If you have reason to suspect something is stolen, you are guilty of aiding the thief.
This guy bought a ridiculously cheap laptop and then sold it in a public auction. This guy is doubly stupid. I have no pity for him.
Yea but some people dont know what they are selling or dont care, they just want some money for fancy computer thingy. A while back on eBay I found a 3 com 8 port gigabit switch. It was an older model and used it still ran for over a grand. Well it was said to be broken they just plugged it in said the lights didnt light properly and sold it to me for 20 bucks. I plugged it in and used the console cable and what do you know it booted and passed all tests. The admin password was even cleard to default. I then bought 2 gigabit nics to test it and everything worked just like it should. The port lights are screwed up but have no effect on any function. I now have an 8 port layer 3 fully managed gigabit routing switch for 20 bucks.
So yea people are either ignorant of an items value or improperly diagnose its condition. My friend bought an $1100 laptop off ebay for 600. The auction looked legit and they guy had good feedback.