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O'Reilly Author's Laptop Rescued By 'Twitter Posse' and Prey

Posted by timothy on from the dog-eat-dog-good-boy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Bad news: a Canadian who visited New York had his laptop stolen. Good news: it was outfitted with Prey, the open-source computer tracking application. Better news: a group in NYC made a 'geek squad intervention,' faced the culprit and retrieved the laptop safely. This case naturally raises the usual sorts of questions about the 'Twitter posse' culture." The victim-turned-victor is author and consultant Sean Power.

3 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Let me get this straight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The police are unlikely to do anything.

  2. RTFA by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Informative

    I read this story like a week ago when it hit Fark. The owner went to the police and they told him to piss off they can't do anything. So thats when vigilante justice took over and got shit done. However if the laptop was part of a drug investigation then no knock warrants and GPS surveillance would be in use that same day.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:RTFA by TechnoGrl · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually no. Power is very clear that he never filed a police report because "he did not have the time" - his words. His primary work machine was stolen along with his birth certificate, his Canadian Health card (both of which can be sold and/or used for identity theft) and a sum of money that was reported to be a thousand dollars. Yet Power didn't have the time to go to to the police? Hmmmmmm.

      It was only 3 days after the theft , while Power was in the middle of his Twitter/Prey drama online did he claim to have contacted the New Your Police from his Canadian home 800 km away. Not surprisingly the police said there was little they could do aside from take a report. All this is from Power's own reports.

      He lost all that and never "had time" to make a police report. Does that sound a bit strange to you? It does to me.

      The "justice" that you described took place three days after the theft when Power "suddenly remembered" that he had installed Prey. Does it make sense to you that he would forget that for three days? The woman who recovered the laptop ("Purple Sarong Girl") remains a mystery as all reference to her was abruptly removed by Power and Reese a couple hours after this drama unfolded.

      So no police report. No person who actually recovered the laptop. The only two people who verify this story remain Sean Power and Nick Reese, two SEO marketing men.

      --
      ----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...