macnn
05/12/2008, 3:50pm, EDT
Monday, May 12th
Thieves caught with Apple employee's notebook
Two thieves have been caught in White Plains, New York as a result of Mac hardware and software, the New York Times reports. Edmon Shahikian and Ian Frias are accused of having stolen thousands of dollars' worth of items from an apartment, including TVs, iPods, DVDs and car rims; their arrest however is tied to the theft of two notebooks, one of which belonged to Kait Duplaga, an employee at an Apple Store in Westchester. Clues to the suspects' identities developed when a friend told Duplaga her Mac notebook was online.
She then realized that by using another Mac, she could exploit .Mac's Back to My Mac feature, which allows remote access to a subscriber's system via Mac OS X Leopard. This enabled her to take a photo of Frias, and retrieve an image of Shahikian; both were known to one of Duplaga's roommates, and had been party guests at the apartment a few weeks earlier.
Shahikian has been released on $3,500 bail, but Frias is still in Westchester County Jail on $7,500 bail.
Filed under: industry
Other story tags: Leopard, Mac, .Mac, Back to My Mac
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awesome!
I hope Apple thinks to make some sort of advertising out of this. Now that's 21st century crime-busting, baby!
alright!
Way to go!!!
Hi, I’m a Mac…
Hi, I’m a Mac…
…and I’m the FBI!
Howzabout
Hi, I'm a Mac..
...and, I'll be your prison beyach.
...and, I'm in need of weight watchers.
...and, I'm a looser.
...and, I'm Ballmer's son
...and, I normally surf on a Dell.
the guest started something here-do contribute.
Ha. Also, in all seriousness, pick your friends carefully. This is by far the most common way crooks scout for new swag.
Rather unlikely situation
This is definitely not a scenario likely to happen often. First, a person with a dot-mac account, second, a friend who also has a Mac and a dot-mac, third, this friend has actually noticed the victim logging into the dot-mac. In addition, we have the perpetrator ignorant enough not to notice that something is happening on the stolen Mac; then to notice it, but too late. Finally, the person actually recognises the perpetrator's picture.There are several software titles that can more effectively recover a laptop (Undercover, GadgetTrack, MacPhoneHome, etc.). Perhaps Apple should look into the features and add similar functionality to Leopard or the next cat). All these will require user to provide a specific password under certain conditions (for example, upon start-up) and if none is entered, take pictures and video with iSight and send them, together with the IP address, WiFi name(s) and other data to the owner. These sites are abundant with testimonies of fast and safe recovery.This BackToMyMac feature was used very creatively on very dumb criminals. She was rather lucky...
One More Thing
A quick google search and a use of google mapping software reveal that Edmon Shahikian is-in fact-the ultimate looser. It's obvious from the satellite image of his home, he lives with Mom
gadzooks
Can't anybody online spell "loser" anymore? It's "loser." One "O."" "Looser" is an adjective meaning "not as tight."
Pretty dumb thieves
You got to be pretty dumb not to notice the green led come on telling you the webcam was operating.
What I meant to say was
Looo-who-who-who-who-Zzzzer.
Said, of course in classic Ace Ventura style.