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Canadian Police Identify Suspect From Remotely-Accessed Stolen Laptop (cochraneeagle.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the found-you-on-Facebook dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Last week a security consultant remotely logged into his stolen laptop, and gathered clues from a Facebook profile. Though it didn't provide the suspect's real name, the consultant shared the profile online, and says he's now receiving tips from other crime victims who are scouring through the profile's friends list. And according to a local newspaper, the Canadian police say they've now identified a suspect, although "there is a lot of work that needs to be done before we can lay charges."

But despite this apparent victory, one officer is also warning the public against sharing a suspect's identity on social media, according to the paper, "after the social media post may have wrongly identified a suspect."
"When you get to public shaming, I urge caution..." the police officer tells the newspaper. "As a person that gets stuff stolen, I understand the want to publicly shame someone... Give us all the info, and we will follow up once we have the evidence."

11 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Better idea by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you have access to it and can know who has it and where it is you can probably get an officer to come with you and knock on a door. If the person denies having it just have it starting making noise or play a loud audio clip about it being stolen. At that point the police officer has probable cause and could enter the dwelling.

    No need to post stuff to social media or anything like that. Hell once a cop is at the door it's pretty easy to talk the person into admitting that they must have "found" it and that you're so greatful that they've kept it safe until you could pick it up. Give people an easy out and they'll usually take it.

    1. Re:Better idea by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      You've obviously never heard of the SUV covered in parking tickets with a dead man in the driver's seat (Nov 2016). Or the cops continuing to issue tickets after you've reported the vehicle stolen and cancelled the plates. Or ticketing and towing a car with a murder victim's body in it.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. May not even be the theif. by blunttrauma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Person who has the laptop now may not be the person who stole it, and may have no idea that is was. Lots of used laptops on craigslist,

    1. Re: May not even be the theif. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      But there is a problem here. The cops are out right lying. Yes report the crime. Yes give them evidence. No they will not investigate any laptop theft or any other petty crime. Ever. They will sit on that evidence and wait for that criminal to maybe one day get caught. Then if things line up and they realize they have other evidence they can tie to the criminal will they proceed with the original investigation and tack on additional charges.

    2. Re:May not even be the theif. by Streetlight · · Score: 2

      Possession of stolen property, no matter how obtained, is usually a crime. That's why pawn shop owners need to be especially careful else they can both lose stolen stuff that's in their shop and go to jail. Sometimes managing stolen property is called fencing and for stolen money, money laundering, all against the law.

      --
      In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
    3. Re: May not even be the theif. by hodet · · Score: 2

      You can't even trust that your tinfoil hat has not been compromised to read your thoughts. BEWARE!

  3. Police aren't interested in small-time theft by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You could have incontrovertible evidence of the identity of the thief or the current possessor of the laptop, but it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to find a police department that's sufficiently interested to bother helping unless it's part of a larger crime. I'm not saying the police are bad people, but I am saying that most departments appear to be under-resourced to follow-up on petty crime.

    1. Re:Police aren't interested in small-time theft by smillie · · Score: 4, Interesting
      In Detroit my new business was burgled and vandilized. When I called the Detroit police they said they don't send their people out for those type of crimes. If I wanted, I could go into the station and fill out a report for insurance claims.

      Another time I called about a man who colapsed in the street. When I checked he wasn't breathing and had no heart beat. I called 911 and told them there was a dead man laying in the middle of the street. She asked what I wanted them to do. I was thinking: you're the professionals and you don't know what to do about a dead body.

      No one showed up. No police, no ambulance, no EMS, no one at all. His friends loaded the body in a car an left. No one ever came by for any kind of statement or investigation.

      So what "retarded country" do I live in where the police don't respond to theft? That would be Detroit, USA.

      --

      Dyslexics Untie!

  4. A good reason to not buy used hardware by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 2

    If you're poor, you can go to BestBuy and buy a clean, never used PC laptop for $200. You can get a Chrome Book for even cheaper than that. There is simply no reason to buy a used computer except from someone you know and trust because you can find literally almost anything, brand new, at a good price point.

    But but old hardware? How about you just recycle it?The alternative is that you give it to someone, it breaks not much later and ends up in a landfill instead of at least probably getting shredded and its materials repurposed.

  5. only if you know it's stolen. Pawn requires paperw by raymorris · · Score: 2

    Generally, receiving stolen property is a crime only if you know it's stolen (or work hard to avoid knowing). Here's the actual text of the statute in Texas, for example:

    Sec. 31.03. THEFT. (a) A person commits an offense if he unlawfully appropriates property with intent to deprive the owner of property.
    (b) Appropriation of property is unlawful if:
    (1) it is without the owner's effective consent;
    (2) the property is stolen and the actor appropriates the property knowing it was stolen by another;

    Later in the statute it sets out specific rules for pawn shops. The special rules are just for pawn shops, not Craigslist buyers. Pawn shops must get ID and have the seller sign a form declaring that it isn't stolen. If the pawn shop fails to get the paperwork, it is presumed that the shop knows the item is probably stolen. (That's just a presumption, the shop can argue why they thought it was not stolen - "Your honor, the hair dryer is permanently labeled "'property of Floyd's Barbershop'. We bought it from Floyd, who of course does legitimately own hair dryers, so we reasonably believed it was actually Floyd's hair dryer."

  6. Canadian Police is doing a much better job than US by sentiblue · · Score: 2

    I admire the extra miles that the CRP go to help theft victims... Unlike the irresponsible cops that we got in the US...

    Recently my car was broken into, an iPhone stolen. I tracked it to tthe very location it was held and I called police but they took hours to call back only to tell me that I have to be at the iPhone location or they won't help. Well guess what? It took me 90 minutes to get through the first phone call to begin with.

    Through another attempt, I got the police to meet me outside the house that had my phone. They told me that if the person holding the phone doesn't want to give it back, I have to turn around and walk away because the crime is not severe enough for them to declare that person under arrest. Since when breaking into a car no longer an important crime?