Stolen Laptop Calls In! - Will Police Act?

broswell asks: "We rent computer equipment and occasionally our equipment gets stolen. I wrote a little VBS script that calls our webserver every hour (script below) and installed it on our laptops. Sure enough, some laptops went missing. One of the stolen laptops is now calling in from a Verizon Internet account which appears to be in a neighboring town. The Baltimore City Police grudgingly filled out a police report 'so we could collect insurance' but don't seem willing to subpoena Verizon, find the address of the end user, recover tha laptop and prosecute the thief. They seem clueless. The Maryland State police has a computer crimes unit. The have a clue, but they claim they don't have jurisdiction. It is not about the money (our customer signed for the computers and will pay for the stolen items), we just want justice." With all of the necessary information in hand of the proper authorities, how likely is it that the stolen laptop will be recovered?

For those interested, here is the script the laptop used to report itself back to its owners:

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objScriptExec = objShell.Exec("ipconfig /all")
strIpConfig = objScriptExec.StdOut.ReadAll
myvar = "send=" + strIpConfig

do until 0=1
on error resume next
a=HTTPPost("http://www.yourtrackinghost.com/cgi-bin/locator.pl",myvar)
WScript.Sleep 3600000

LOOP

Function HTTPPost(sUrl, sRequest)
set oHTTP = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
oHTTP.open "POST", sUrl,false
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
oHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Length", Len(sRequest)
oHTTP.send sRequest

HTTPPost = oHTTP.responseText
End Function

Comments

Media

[MeanMF]

If the police won't do anything, call the local press.

Re:Media

[Harmonious Botch]

Good idea, but wrong order. Give Verizon a chance to be the good guy. Call their publicity department first. If they make excuses, then call local media.

Re:Media

[Mr. Byaninch]

I agree. Police aren't very receptive to ordinary citizens solving crimes and then asking the cops to finish the job. I had a friend who had a check stolen from a USPS blue mailbox. The thieves 'washed' the check and rewrote it for enough to cover a bunch of Gateway computers. Gateway had some problem (that I don't recall) with something that was on back order and called the phone number on the order, which (dumb criminals) was the same as on the check. My friend already had found out a check had been hijacked when other stuff started bouncing. So she got the shipping info - address, tracking # and date - and then took it to the cops. All they had to do was go to the address and arrest whoever accepted the package. Guess if they did. NOT. All they did was 'take a crime report'.

Cops are probably offended when citizens bring them solved crimes. They're a strange bunch. Anyone who knows one will confirm that. Unless that someone is dating or married to one, in which case that someone is also a strange one. :)

So I agree. Go the police first, and when they won't 'solve' the crime, tell the media. A local news channel's 'Consumer Watchdog' or whatever they're called in your town is the best bet. It's not really news for the normal broadcast, but it's juicy stuff for those 'we help our viewers' segments.

Re:Media

[Bios_Hakr]

And make sure to tell them something realy important was on there. Like the names and addresses of the people who attended last year's Police Ball.

Or maybe Baltimore police don't have balls?

In all seriousness, file a "John Doe" civil suit in the ISPs district. As part of the action, ask for discovery on a specific IP address. Since you are filing against John Doe, Verizon will most likely consent. Once you have the name and address of the theif, drop the John Doe case and go back to the police with the guy's name, address, phone number, photos of his house and dog. At this point, either the police press charges, or you lodge an official complaint against the cops.

Look at the following article about how the RIAA uses IP addresses to find people. You should be using similar tactics. Do some sleuthing once you have the address. Make sure you aren't going after some poor bastard with an open WAP while the real theif lives right next door.

Going to the press is a bad idea. The theif is very likely to see the story and will move to dispose of the property.

Re:Media

[ryanr]

Yeah, I'm sure no one will mind if Verizon gives out customer info without a subpoena. A phone company would only do that kind of thing under rare circumstances.

Re:Media

[Anonymous Coward]

Good idea, but wrong order. Give Verizon a chance to be the good guy. Call their publicity department first. If they make excuses, then call local media.

Why do I get the feeling that you think "being the good guy" equates to giving out their customers' private data without a court order? It really isn't their job to substantiate the cover story or judge their customers. We have courts for that.

Going through the police is the right way. If they're not doing their job, then publicise that fact. If the shop wants an alternative then they should talk to a lawyer about the possibility of suing the John Doe for something (trespass to property?) and getting a court to order Verizon to provide details that way.

Re:Media

[jamesh]

I'd be calling your insurance company next. They have an interest in getting the stolen goods back too, in that then they don't have to make a claim.

The whole situation is pretty silly though. You're basically handing the police a solution on a plate. They won't have to do too much detective work to get a result, and even if it doesn't end in a conviction, at least they's be showing you that 'the system works', and on a slow news day they might even get a _positive_ write up in the local media.

Re:Media

[log0n]

It's most likely Baltimore Police. There was a big expose here about the BCPD forging or failing to take reports, browbeating victims to not press charges... a lot of really heinous stuff. Apparently it was done to try to keep reported crime levels artificillay low to help the mayor get elected to governor. There's been a lot of stink about it in certain news organizations.

(tired - can't spell)

Re:Media

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for a major PD as a Specialist Reserve Officer. My thing is breaking into computers to obtain evidence when the casual attempts fail. After a couple of conversations with a deputy city attorney , it appears that it is extremely difficult to obtain a filing, much less a conviction, unless the suspect is caught in an illegal act and seen doing so by the eyes of several officers. The greatest cases I've seen were never even filed. I've worked with the feds on some cases and we've been extremely careful not to pollute the original hard drives, but our cases don't even get filed because there's an element of doubt in someone's mind, somewhere along the line. We've handed felony cases to the DA that could be called Silver Platter, but they were not filed because they have higher priorities. Their focus is on violent crime, at least where I do this stuff. If you're just an average Joe like me, I think the police don't give a high enough priority on your loss to give you a second thought. I'm sorry for those in your shoes, but I tend to agree with their priorities.

Re:Media

[bluprint]

Follow the money. There isn't any money in solving such crimes. They are too busy generating profits via traffic and parking tickets and such. Why bother with an actual crime that will use resources when they can target basically good people for cash?

Re:Media

[julesh]

As other posters have said, verizon will need a court order before they can hand out this information.

But: there's little to stop you from getting one yourself. File a claim for recovery of property against an unknown party. Put a motion before the judge asking for an order that verizon disclose any and all information they have about that IP address, including an explanation of how you know that the IP address is involved. This is as much information as the RIAA have when they make their claims -- you should be able to do exactly the same thing as they're doing.

Then, once the party is identified, they'll be served with all the relevant documentation. You go to court, claim they have property that belongs to you, and request an order that it is returned, along with compensation for your loss of use of it in the interrim.

If you do your homework, you shouldn't even need a lawyer for a case this simple.

Disclaimer: I know little about US civil procedure. What I describe would be possible in the UK, and I understand based on a little reading that procedure is roughly similar in US courts.

RIAA

[the eric conspiracy]

Your best hope is that now that you have the IP you can hack into the laptop and install a BT server with lots of nice pop music and videos. Then report the sharing site to the RIAA and watch them take this sucka down.

Re:RIAA

[MBCook]

Receiving stolen property, they are guilty. If they bought a nice laptop for $200 then they had to know it was stolen (especially since it probably had tons of business documents on it, if it's phoning home it hasn't been wiped). I doubt they bought it in good faith. If they DID (say they paid a decent amount that would buy them such a laptop) then they could get out of the charges by pointing out where they got it. I doubt the DA would press charges on them if they pointed out where they got it from and would testify to that fact.

If they bought it from a pawn shop or used computer shop or something, that shop is liable (I think) and they may still not have claim to the laptop. Both should have questioned the sale of this laptop with all the business stuff still on it (and even more.. selling it like that).

Still, crooks are, by and large, idiots. I would bet the original thief (or a direct relative/girlfriend/boyfriend) has the thing.

Either way, you would think the cops would be all over this one. Grand theft (the laptop cost over $1000 new, right?), known location (more or less, but it keeps phoning home), easy catch, and 100:1 odds that this is NOT the first/only crime the guy has committed (probably has a few other hot items near him).

I agree with one of the other comments. Go to the media. "His laptop was stolen, and he knew where it was... but the police wouldn't do a thing. Why your stuff isn't safe... tonight at 10." Or sue the department (that always gets things moving, just the threat with a nasty-gram should do). Or go talk to the DA. A case like this (likely a slam dunk) you would think they would want to take. They probably don't know about it and could get the police to go do something.

Re:RIAA

[wizbit]

No, I've been through this with several friends.

If I tell you I can get you a laptop for $100, are you at all suspicious? Anyone with some common sense will suss out that my source might be slightly less-than-reputable. The problem, of course, is very very few people in these cases are "truly" ignorant.

Re:RIAA

[arpy]

Yeah - watch out for these dodgy people!

Depends on the Police Department

[rolfwind]

For instance, in this case:
http://www.laptopical.com/lojack-for-laptop.html

"Proof-positive of LoJack's power comes from such stories as the one out of William Penn University in Iowa. A student there had a college laptop stolen. Absolute Software was promptly notified. And their recovery experts there soon tracked the laptop down to the phone line that the notebook was hooked into the Internet on. The Des Moines Police Department was notified, and officers promptly put down their donuts and coffee and swooped in on the missing PC."

The lojack program seems to do the exact thing yours does, but then again, perhaps because it is "official", the police may take the information more seriously.

good luck with that

[grapeape]

I had a laptop and 2 desktops stolen from my van in the parking lot next to the police station in downtown KC. One of my side windows as well as the windows of 3 other vehicles were broken out. The police department couldnt even be bothered to walk downstairs to file a report and told me I would need to phone it in, I called and the detective said I wasnt likely to get it back but he would get back to me. Later that night after I was home my work aim account logged itself online. I got the IP called the police department with the info, was called back the next day and reprimanded for "interfering in police work". Anyway I stopped interfering, 2 years later and I guess they are still busy doing "police work" because I have never heard back from them. I guess I learned my lesson, dont bother. Now when I have to be downtown I just leave the doors unlocked, its alot cheaper than replacing the windows. I've actually managed to make a game out of it, I no longer have to take old computers to the salvage place, I just load them in the van and take them downtown.

Explained it wrong

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Think they understood the VBS? Now I know that you didn't directly throw that VB at them, but still.

Explain that your computers connect to the work network and log in, and you noticed that there was a computer trying to "hack in" from another town. Your security people found that the computer was your own computer, one that had been reported stolen.

Spin it in a way they'll understand.

Re:Explained it wrong

[plover]

Hate to disappoint you, but no cop will bother with fingerprints for a simple auto burglary. It's a simple matter of priorities. There are way too many things for the police to do than track down petty criminals.

The biggest reason is that even if they did pull good fingerprints from your window, tracked them to a known criminal, got a warrant, entered his place, and found him along with your stereo in his bedroom, the criminal would get an average sentence of a few days to a few weeks, (most likely suspended,) plus probation and possibly reparations.

But that entire scenario is highly unlikely, from the first assumption to the last. Too many people see smeary fingerprints taken on CSI and assume that every precint has a "Bat Computer" sitting in the back where they can just upload a print and out pops a name and an arrest warrant. And every one of those people expects the same care devoted to catching a car-stereo thief.

There's just nothing in it for the lesser crimes. No real punishments, just a lot of work for absolutely nothing resembling justice. Someone might take pity on you if you didn't have insurance, but even that's highly unlikely unless the value of the stolen merchandise was high.

The cops will definitely take it seriously if there's been a violent crime (again, keep in mind the difference between what you'd consider a serious assault and what they'd consider serious.) And even then, the backlog clogging the BCA labs usually runs over a year before forensic evidence is processed! There are simply too many criminals and too many crimes at this point in history.

Re:Explained it wrong

[EnderWigginsXenocide]

YOU:
Hate to disappoint you, but no cop will bother with fingerprints for a simple auto burglary.

ME:
Untrue. Careful with broad all-encompassing statements.

YOU:
It's a simple matter of priorities. There are way too many things for the police to do than track down petty criminals.

ME:
Correct.

If officers are sitting on alot of crap calls (no crime commited, just bitchy neighbor complaints about barking dogs or music in the daytime hours, etc.) they will often take the five minutes to print a car about the top of the "doorjamb," around the doorhandle, and in locations likely to be touched in the comission of a crime (say a dashboard if a piece of installed equiptment is stolen, think radio, dvd, sat-nav.) If any prints look very good they will take a lift and file them along with their report of stolen property.

Sure, your stolen ipod won't get shoved to the front of the live-scan line, it will be bumped to the end of the que by just about any other crime with fingerprint evidence.

Crimes like theft are often commited by repeat offenders, and thus these criminals will have prints on file. A print left in a "low profile" crime can lead to a routine request for an arrest warrant. Of course this won't lead to a SWAT raid on the perps residence, but next time he/she cheks in with their PO, gets a traffic violation, or somehow draws the attention of the law enforcement community, the cuffs will go on and they'll be jailed right away for violating their terms of release and may see additional time from the new crime.

This process requires very little effort (no major investment of time or money... lifting a print is dirt cheap next to sequencing DNA for example) and makes for an easy bust down the road.

Now, when you call in your car that's been broken into you might wait [quite] a few hours to get an officer out to take a report because it is indeed a low priority call [no life in danger, not in progress, and not likely to lead to a quick apprehension even when a quick response is made.]

If a department has, or at some point in the past had, the funding to train the average patrol officer to lift prints then you may receive this kind of service (smaller towns like El Monte CA [higher crime rate] and Fullerton CA [lower crime rate] both do this, neither being particulary large in population [relative to their neighboring cities in the LA Metro area.])

It's cheaper to have officers collect "basic evidence" than to have an officer wait on scene for a specalist in evidence collection to clear their currrently pending calls and respond to a crime that's quite low priority. When a city dosen't have, or never has had, the funding to do this then you end up with simple theft being a purely paper crime (where the only response to the crime is a piece of paper[a report] and no other action is taken regarding the crime.)

Stolen Sidekick Part 2: The Missing Laptop

[SocialEngineer]

Start a blog. Link to it from /. (just post a comment). Get worldwide exposure. Post the IP address and whatever information you can find on the user (without resorting to illegal means). Get people interested in your cause, and get your local paper to publish something. It may piss the police off, but they'll actually do something by then, hopefully.

FYI

[way2trivial]

grand theft, although it contains the word 'grand' means more substantial theft than 1000, and the value is extremely variable on a per community basis..

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?o2=&o0=1&o 7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&s=grand%20theft

Call the FBI

[Joe U]

You could always call the FBI and have them charged for breaking into secured computer systems, being:

1. The laptop
2. The server

Make Some Noise.

[themassiah]

First, try and verify that the police department isn't doing anything about it. Talk to a supervisor in a day or two and see where this case is going. Then, if nothing is being done, consult an attorney and ask what your options are. I know that most police forms have complain forms to fill out if you want to start making a stink. Work your way up the ladder, their IS a chain of accountability and if you're persistant and cause enough pain, someone will make the phone call to Verizon or whomever and get the name and address on the account.

If that fails to produce justice, follow up with the attorney and file civil suit against the police agency. You handed them about 3/4 of the case when you produced an IP address, they should have been willing and capable of filling in the missing paperwork and whatnot.

Nothing new

[dusanv]

I had my car stolen when I was in school. 12 year old Honda Accord. Didn't think anyone would bother to steal the POS so I didn't insure against theft (money saving student). After it got stolen I called the cops and the first thing they asked me was whether the car was insured against theft. Since it wasn't, they wouldn't even take a report! Can you believe that? Anyway, I found the car a couple of days later 5 parking spots away from where I left it. The steering column was busted. There was a pair of size 9 rollerblades in the trunk (thief with size 9 feet?) and six jugs of bleach (???).

This was in local papers: a woman here in town (Ottawa, ON) had her house repeatedly broken into. After reporting to the cops and complaining that she has to buy a new lock each time they told her to leave the door unlocked!

Re:Nothing new

[Anonymous Coward]

In 1989 I bought a one year old car. I was replacing my 6 year old car that I was driving at the time. I had attempted to sell my car in my local newspaper. I had also started a new job at the time and had made friends with one of the security guards upon entry into the building that I was working in. She was my age and I thought she was beautiful.

One day in the building cafeteria, I saw her sitting by herself eating lunch. I asked if she minded if I joined her. She didn't mind at all. In the conversation she mentioned that she needed a new car that hers needed some serious repair. I told her about my car and she said that she would be interested. It was also an excuse to give her my phone number and address.

She noticed me now everytime that I walked into the building and told me that she would call me. The following week she called me and told me she would like to come out to my house on the following Saturday and take the car to a mechanic.

Since she was leaving her car at my house and I knew where she worked, I didn't think twice. She drove over to my house in her 1973 Dodge station wagon with the slant 6 motor leaving a trail of smoke behind it. She hopped in my 1983 Toyota Supra and said that she would be back in a couple of hours. She didn't leave the keys to her car.

Several hours later, no return. The next day, no return. I went to work on Monday and asked if she would be in. I was told that she quit work the previous Friday.

I gave her a couple of days, then reported the car as stolen. I didn't keep insurance on a car that I was selling. No word from the police at all. Several months later, luck would have it I was driving into Atlanta for some reason and she comes speeding past me. Cell phones were a new thing then and I called the police. They kept asking my location of the car and I would tell them it was on the interstate. They kept telling me that by the time they sent someone there, the car would be gone. I told them that I wanted to update the stolen car report and when they looked it up, there was no report of it being stolen.

The next day I went back to the police department and filed another stolen car report and went to the DMV and listed the tag as stolen. Maybe that would help.

Less than a year later, I came across the car again in a secured parking lot of a building downtown. I called the police. I had the title to the car in hand, I had the registration to the car in hand. When the cops got there, I told them that the car was mine and it was stolen. I didn't have the spare key to the car at the time but I wanted it impounded. I had all the paperwork. They told me that I needed the key to the car. I told them that I lived 20 minutes away and I would go get the key.

When I got back to the car, paperwork in hand with the key to the car, they tried to arrest me for filing a bad police report. There again was no police report of the car being stolen. The security guard woman that stole my car joined the county police department of where the car was. She was an off duty officer now on night duty watching this building.

She told them that I gave her the car and I was jealous that she was no longer dating me. She took off with the car again 10 minutes before I made it back with the key. I have never seen the car again.

Long story short, police protect their own and they do what ever they want to do or not do.

This could be fun

[RealityMogul]

First off, nice job with the script. Now, take it a few steps further. Let that script connect as it is, but let the server return a status indicator as to whether or not the machine is stolen. If it is - let the script modify IE, Opera, and Firefox configuration settings to use a proxy installed on a server you own. Preferably a proxy that can be set to log EVERYTHING. Just wait for them to log into something with clear text username/password, like most e-mail accounts from major providers use. Shouldn't be much of a leap to get enough info on him/her to pinpoint their street address.

Cheap != stolen

[davidwr]

It's urban legend but I'm sure similar things happen in real life:
Disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-wife sells husband's car or other stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Unless you are a pawn shop owner or otherwise "knowledgable," the fact you bought it cheap is not evidence you "knowingly" received stolen goods. However, you are still in possession of them and that's usually a misdemeanor. At best, you will be out whatever you paid the real crooks.

BTW, I've received working electronic goods for a very small fraction of their street value, usually because the owner wanted to do me a favor or he just wanted to get rid of the stuff. Now only if I could get a $1,000 laptop for 80% off :).

Re:Police not doing their job?

[pimpimpim]

A situation like this was once in the newspaper in Holland: pump owners had all the date, but police couldn't be bothered. The newspaper coverage increased the amount of pump-and-run cases a bit (hey, if it's that easy...), but it also made it clear to government and police officials that they had to take this seriously, and I guess they improved since then.

Makes you sometimes wish you were in a corruptable regime, there you could have Police officers at least help you if you gave them money. You'd have to give more money than the crooks of course, but anyway there you know then why they won't help you (if you offer too little), and that is better then not being able to get anything done with the police due to random reasons.

Re:Legal sys cost money ... but we already paid!

[Pantero Blanco]

"So, what this amounts to is some police officer saying ... "they'll get a nice new replacement anyway, why bother tracking the crooks, it's only one laptop"."

One of the first things I learned in primary school was that most people in places of authority don't care about dispensing justice unless the incident directly affects them. They'll always rationalize their way out of having to do anything. If you want anything done, you have to call them out in front of a crowd so it makes them look like an asshole if they try to ignore you.

Re:Good luck

[kfg]

I know it was the Bahamas but isn't that technically part of the US?

Yeah, but only in the same sense that Cuba and Panama are technically part of the US. Something about being independant nations makes them pissy about our law enforcement mucking around inside their borders for some reason.

Hell, Cuba and Panama have been know to shoot at mainland cops. What's with that?

KFG

Re:Tort: Conversion

[grolaw]

Conversion is a start. 18 U.S.C. 2510 et seq., the Electronic Communication Privacy
Act; 18 U.S.C. 1030 et seq., the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as amended
by the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984,
specifically including 18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(5)(B) would be a far better choice for a causes of action.

You get attorney's fees, compensatory damages and, there is a collateral criminal charge available. Once your attorney has nailed the defendant the U.S Attorney's office will have some oung turk who will come in and pick up a slam dunk for a notch in his/her belt.

Conversion is a common law action and it is a reasonable cause - but Trover would be a better action as it reaches the cognizable personal property (data) as well as the machine.

This is not a difficult cause to pursue. I've done it several times myself. My first was in 1993 and last was 2002. This is neither rocket science nor high-dollar litigation.

Act fast before the thief kills the script.

OH, don't forget to ask for injunctive relief - like a LIFETIME BAN ON INTERNET ACCESS.

It won't take very many lifetime bans before the cost of a stolen laptop gets around....

Baltimore police: laptop theft... try kiddnapping

[Tronster]

My current situation: http://www.tronster.com/missing/

My friend's 3 kids was "kidnapped" yesterday by their father here in Baltimore, their location is unknown.

After a 4 day custody trial, which ended Friday, he was orded to turn them over at a Police station at 8pm on 8/18/06. He neve showed.

I've spent the day riding with her to and from multiple Police stations as well as the Towson commissioner's office. Everywhere we go we hear the same thing, "Without a bench warrant our hands are tied."

Today I learned 2 things:

1. It's nearly impossible to get a hold of a judge on a Saturday
2. Commissioner's can be downright cruel and unhelpful

While working with the Baltimore police, most all have been very friendly (many have agreed with us about Commissioner's!) but none of them are able to do more than write down what we say. We're quickly losing hope; and even if an amber alert goes out... it may be too late if he has left the country. I have almost no faith in the Baltimore legal system and how it interacts with the police is non-existant. (Note: I blame this interaction between the two, not the Police themselves.)

Regardless, I wanted to tred on the border of being on topic as the Baltimore police and their inability to act on this may cause us to lose 3 children to an unstable man. If any Slashdoter's have 5 seconds, please click on the web-page below I made, and let me know if you see him or the kids.

With luck and more leg work, we'll get the amber alert up ASAP.

http://www.tronster.com/missing/

ThatScript v2.0

[entendre entendre]

Phoning home is one thing, but even better would be to phone home and then download any little executable that it finds there. These could do a variety of things:

• Upload any non-trivial IP from the laptop to the server, since that's probably the last chance you have to keep it.
• Taunt your local police. ("Hi, I'm sending this email from a stolen computer and i just wanted you to know that you're never going to catch me because you're all a bunch of fat lazy slobs. Crime does pay, bitches!")
• Taunt the theives' local police. ("Wanna buy a laptop? I got three more just like this one, ready to go, super cheap.")
• Install a key logger, get his credentials. Post things all over the internet with the theif's ID (e.g. his next MySpace diary entry will be "so my friends and I stole some computer gear last week...")
• Append random obscenities into every email that exits the computer ("P.S. I fucked your mom too.")
• Random pseudo-malware "attacks" on police station web servers - nothing that would bring the server down, but enough to take the IT department's attention. It is possible that their heads are so far up there asses that nothing can reach their brains, but I think there's a fair chance that their IT depeartment can still get through to them.
• To be continued...

Surely there is more to add to that list. Remember - you have plausible deniability. Your computer was stolen by an egomaniac hacker who loves to taunt police and do unspeakable things to sheep.

However I do recommend against the P2P thing suggested earlier. That might just move your computer from the theif to an evidence locker while the RIAA does their paperwork. That sounds counterproductive.

CrimeStoppers

[Max Threshold]

Call in a tip to CrimeStoppers. Not only will the cops get to feel like they're playing detective and actually do something about it, but maybe you'll get a reward for it.

John Doe Lawsuit can get you subpoena

[billstewart]

If Verizon requires a subpoena to justify violating the privacy of the person whose IP address you're interested in, and the police won't push the case enough to get you one, you've still got a tort action against the people who ripped you off. You don't know who they are, but you can generally file a civil lawsuit against "John Doe", similar to the way the RIAA files them against John Doe file sharers. That'll let you get the court to give you a subpoena, which should be good enough for Verizon's lawyers. You might or might not be able to do that in small claims court, depending on your local rules and the value of the computers; otherwise it'll probably cost you lawyer money, and therefore might or might not be worth it.

Do move fast - if the thief sold it to somebody, it might stay there a while, but if they're just checking whether it works or seeing what they can find, they may fence it or pawn it.

Re:laughable hypocrisy

[penix1]

Yet you would be the first one screaming if Verizon did just hand over the info to an unverified accuser (BTW; IIRC, Verizon was cleared of the allegation you are thinking of AT&T who is still under the gun). That is the whole point of doing "John Doe" suits by the **AA first. This guy should contact a lawyer to handle this correctly. That is what they get paid for. As for the police, that can be handled by filing a complaint then letting your lawyer handle that situation.

This case aside, jurisdiction is tough to set in computer related crimes because of locations involved. Usually it is the FBI who handles them because they have jurisdiction across state lines.

B.

This (sorta) happened to me

[SUPAMODEL]

A couple of years ago, a laptop (among other items) was stolen from my car. Didn't have any password protection on my user account (nothing good on there) and I had my MSN and ICQ accounts set to autosignin.

About a week after it was stolen, I came home from University to find that my desktop computer had been signed out of MSN cause someone else had signed in. Turns out someone with my laptop was coming on as me and being annoying to some of my friends. Got a webserver set up that I had access to the logs from, and put on a certain page that no-one else knew about. One of my friends dropped it into the conversation, and bam, laptop user clicks on it.

I made a couple of sworn statements to the police and took a long time convincing them that I had something useful. Took about 10 weeks for them to act on the information, and unfortunately I was away from home when they did. They traced the IP back to an account registered to some bloke a couple of hours away, and they had him under some suspicion of receiving stolen goods but never caught him with any. So, the police raided and got my laptop (and others) back. They also found a considerable qauntity of drugs, which I guess helps seal a conviction for something.

The person was aout the 4th or 5th person to handle my laptop within the week, and I believe the police have never nailed the people who originally stole it (over 2 years ago).

The person actually on MSN that we used to take the bait was this guy's 13 year old nephew. When I got the laptop back it still had all my files on it (although the used a black marker to try to fill in some engraving I had under the battery with my details) and they'd also set up their own user account. This kid had his MSN signin info, all his emails, yada yada yada. Never signed into MSN as him or looked at his stuff, I shoulda. Just reformatted it and started again - never know what shit they had on there.

So, yes, it can be done. But it takes A LOT of work to convince some low-level police grunt that an eye-pea address has some credibility (I was helped cause I had set my browser to return a really random useragent string, so we pretty much knew it was my laptop).

insurance company should instigate investigation

[chargen]

Since insurance companies are so good at preventing payouts, why not put all the evidence to them and state that you don't want to file a claim as the laptop is still recoverable, but that the police are unwilling to cooperate and that you'll need to file a claim within x weeks if the situation is unresolved. In a way it's too bad it's not a higher value item which might be cause for more action on each party's part. -Pete

Then file a writ of replevin

[Savantissimo]

Your linked-to post is quite right, and worth a repost. IANAL but used to just about everything but appear in court working in a small law office in Maryland about 15 years ago. I believe specifically what this guy needs after getting a subpoena for the John Doe's ID is a "writ of replevin" in which the court may order the Sheriff to seize the property after an ex-parte pre-trial show-cause hearing.
See:
http://www.courts.state.md.us/district/forms/civil /dccv04br.html - for specific MD instructions and http://www.courts.state.md.us/district/forms/civil /dccv04.pdf - the form.

If you are not in MD you may make a federal case out of it; the U.S. Marshals serve these writs, too. You might find that has drawbacks - you really need a lawyer's advice, not Slashdot's.

>>anagama (611277) Sunday August 20, @01:07AM (#15943034) wrote:
If the cops won't help, see the tort of conversion [wikipedia.org]. File a "john doe" civil suit. Once filed, your attorney would have subpoena power -- use it with Verizon to get the name, address, and phone number of the user associated with the IP. Verizon will have an entire department devoted to processing these types of requests -- you'll have no problem except figuring out what their number is. If you represent yourself, you may have to ask the court to issue the subpoena on your behalf. Once you have the identifier, amend your suit to name that party (probably keep the "john does" at least till you're certain you have all the people involved). Also check your states statutes, there may be something specifically related to your situation. The statutes are certainly available online free -- start at your state's homepage (somewhere burried of course).

Bluff

[DeanFox]

My home was broken into three times, three days in a row. It was neighborhood kids.

I wasn't getting anywhere with the police. First the cop would take a report then a detective would come out and look around. I could tell by their tone that they weren't going to do anything about it. Not, that is, until the third time. Do you know what changed their mind?

While the detectives were there trying to make it look like they were doing something I faked a call to work and pretended to leave a message that I wasn't coming in the next day. Then I faked a call to a friend asking if I could borrow his "weapon" and that I needed it that night. I turned to the cops and said, they've come in three times, three days in a row, and they're coming back. It's my right and I'm going to protect my property.

On their way out they were visibly upset. They were convinced there was going to be a blood bath the next day. I got a call 4 hours later that they caught and arrested the boys responsible. 4 hours. And that was after they were already booked and in custody. The arrests had to have been at least and hour or two earlier.

The detective kept telling me I could go to work after all, blah, blah. It really was the thought of me hiding in ambush that got these police to do their job. It took all but 2-3 hours for them to find and arrest these boys. It took me lying and convincing them I was going to shoot the next person who walked through my door to get them to do it.

This is one of those bluffs that probably only works once in a lifetime but it worked.