Best Way To Get Back a Stolen Computer?

davidphogan74 writes "I have some stolen computers checking in with a server we have (software pre-loaded), and I have full access to the systems. What's the best way to deal with this situation? The local police (to the theft) have been contacted several times and seem to be clueless. I personally have no financial interest in these computers, I just don't like atom-thieves. What's the best way to handle knowing the IPs, email addresses, MySpace sites, the Google login, etc. when working with law enforcement? The officer I spoke with (who genuinely seemed to care) didn't know an IP address from a mailing address, so I called others. Nobody cared. Anyone have any ideas?"

You need to go beyond the law.

You need Snake Plissken.

Re:You need to go beyond the law.

Snake Plissken? I heard he was dead.

Change the background pic

to Goatse?

You need to use the police to get the ISP's info

The ISP can tell you who is at an IP address, and from that, you can find your computers.

Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf

That's a sound idea. It might be a good bit of preventive maintenance to use a dynamic DNS client like No-IP to map the computer's current IP, whatever it may be, to a unique domain name. If your PC goes missing just ping the domain and if it's plugged in you're that much closer to finding it.

Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf

confidential data such as that can only be obtained with a court order ... unless you're sneaky and can somehow convince tech support or a CSR to give you the information.

Set it to download kiddie porn...

If the police will not help you then set it to up/download dubious content. They will be round like a shot. You might get nicked visiting a FBI kiddie-porn honey trap during your research for this though...
Maybe try the RIAA. Claim that it has downloaded an Amy Winehouse track or something like that.

Re:You need to use the police to get the ISP's inf

If you have monitoring software on the computer, just wait until they do some sort of financial transaction using the company machine.

Then just use the info to order a few dozen more PC's at their expense, and send them an email saying you won't tell if they won't.

Treat it as an Open Source problem

Become a cop and solve it yourself.

Seems to be common these days

See what this guy did with his irrigation controller:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/04/1228208 [slashdot.org]

Go to a lawyer

Speak with a lawyer that has knowledge and interest in this situation. The fact that a successful prosecution may bring a lot of publicity to the guy may be enough to help him work for free, or the company that is losing the computers may post his retainer.

What is your relation to all of this? As with any civil case, the police are not going to be a driving force to pursue the theft; your company or the people that lost it should be making sure things get done.

I wouldn't expect police to know anything about IP, MAC addresses, login tracing, etc., but a lawyer would. Then, what a lawyer can do is go to a judge saying, "We have solid evidence that person at IP x.x.x.x which is Verizon ISP registered to address ___ main street., also cross confirming with name at myspace profile _____, is using stolen property."

A warrant will then be issued, and the police can go to the house and retrieve the laptop, and interview the guy, who will doubtlessly say "I bought it from _____ on the street, I thought it was legit." You will surely get your computer back, and if you find a motherlode of computers, he will surely go to jail.

Re:Go to a lawyer

As with any civil case, the police are not going to be a driving force to pursue a theft

FYI Theft is criminal, not civil, how serious depends on the dollar amount. Most thefts under $1000 are misdemeanors, over that is felony theft and these crimes are certainly under the pervue of your local and state police (unless its interstate, in which cases the FBI has jurisdiction).

The same we you resolve all problems on a computer

First you go get a gun, then you run around shooting complete strangers (don't worry - they'll respawn eventually), and make your way toward any glowing switches you happen to find. For no apparent reason, this will advance you toward your goal of getting your computer back.

OH! Don't forget to find a good spot to spawn camp to get your frag numbers up! I hear the nursery ward at the hospital tends to be a good camping spot...

Use a phone analogy?

Try explaining it to a cop as being like a stolen phone? You have the equivalent of its phone number and need police to ask the phone company to look up the location of the stolen property?

Find out where the gear is physically

My advice is to find out where the gear is physically, then call the sympathetic cop back.

If you cannot find that out, you cannot expect them to. I would take the IP address and contact the ISP that serves it. If they won't help you, get the cop to do it.

An obvious question is, do these computers have built in cameras that can be turned on remotely ? That might produce useful info.

You might also be able to read the thieves' email. If you do that long enough, I bet you will get their names and addresses.

Escalate the Issue to the FBI

You may want to escalate the matter to a different law enforcement agency, such as the FBI. They should be more responsive to this sort of thing, especially if you describe it as data theft, rather than property theft, as surely your company's computers that were stolen were loaded with company data.

If you live in a small county with elected/appointed law enforcement agents, perhaps you should raise this issue the next time they're up for re-election. If you live in a larger city, perhaps you should contact your city councilor about the issue and request that your city's police force be modernized for the 21st century.

You should avoid doing anything yourself, as you can land yourself in legal trouble. If you insist on doing something yourself, get legal advice first to ensure you aren't going to cause more trouble for yourself in the process.

Log information, find out who they are.

If you have full access t to the system, start logging EVERYTHING. I'm sure eventually you'll find someone going to a myspace, facebook or checking email.

Write down the IP address, find the ISP and call them and ask them to log that you called with the date and time, and the IP address. I wouldn't expect you to tell you who it is, but have them log the user at that time so you can reference it later.

xkcd has the answer

Something similiar to: http://www.xkcd.com/440/ [xkcd.com]

find the right people to talk with

talk to the police chief in the town, talk with the local sheriff. If you can't get satisfaction, talk with the local newspaper. Also try the county judge, they may give you some insight on how to motivate the law on that area.

Be sure to keep meticulous records on IP addresses, dates, times, etc. Find out what ISP they are using and contact them. They will very likely tell you they cannot give YOU information, but they probably will give this information to the police/sheriff. Make sure that happens before their records are rotated and wiped. It may be necessary for them to fax the ISP a request or get it in writing, again make sure this process moves forward, keep tabs on progress and that it doesn't be come a "we didn't have time to bother".

There are other creative ideas you could employ. Put a script on the laptop that emails the county judge once an hour saying "hello from stolen laptop located in your district. Just a reminder for you that your law enforcement has yet to recover this identified stolen property after having been notified of its location." Be sure it CCs the local sheriff/police chief. If you know the mayor or governor's email address, that makes a good CC also.

If they ask you to stop the emails, refuse. Sorry that laptop's been stolen. Maybe you should go get it for me and I'll turn off the script?

PowerSolution

Call the cops back, tell them not to worry about following up the theft, as you just went around and shot the thief.

See how fast they scuttle ;)

Obvious

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.

I actually do work for a PD.

And we handle this regularly. The department local to where the thefts occurred should have been notified in the first place and a police report filed. If you've done that, there will be an officer associated with that report. Get in touch with him/her directly with the information you have. If you can't, find out who the detectives are for that PD and get in touch with them. If you can gather any and all information you've got regarding IP addresses, etc., put it all together before getting in touch.

Unfortunately, if they're not remotely tech savvy and/or simply afraid of technology, it may take some prodding. Most state police agencies have teams specifically tasked with this sort of thing, so it may be that you have to contact your state's police for help.

When you bring any documentation, also make sure you have estimated costs of all the hardware. That will sometimes help get people's attention, being able to say it's X number of dollars. Not saying it's right, but much of the time you run into departments who won't pay much attention to "petty" thefts, but will take notice of $2000 or more. There have been a number of /. stories regarding people in your situation tracking down stolen computers. You might try searching for those or Google articles and blogs about the steps folks have taken when facing lackluster police response.

Re:Across State lines?

Or make the computers send a death threat to each member of the congress and executive office (including the candidates) then the FBI moves in, and at the impounded auction you can buy it back for pennies on the dollar.

Re:Across State lines?

Or make the computers send a death threat to each member of the congress and executive office (including the candidates)...

I've got to admit that this appeals to me. Just don't sign it "Osama" or mention WMDs... It seems there are some things they're just not interested in finding. [g]

Re:Across State lines?

The FBI won't intervene for less than $5000 worth of stolen goods, generally.

Work for the NSA and get a computer with top secret (but not especially sensitive) data on it. When that gets stolen, you'll have a black ops team using the thieves' home as a training facility for an evening. That happened to my friend, once. (He had an NSA-style briefcase with builtin microphone, cell phone, radio transmitter, and GPS unit that was stolen. He himself did not steal such an item.)