"This Guy Has My MacBook" Blog Helps Nab Thief

Photo link


Joshua Kaufman's MacBook was stolen from him way back in March. Luckily, he had installed a $15 app on his laptop called Hidden, which can track your computer "anywhere on the planet" and even take pictures of the people currently using your property. Though the Oakland Police were previously unable to help Kaufman due to a lack of resources, they were certainly interested once the Tumblr he launched last week went viral and got the attention of Good Morning America.

Guess what? Kaufman's MacBook was located last night and returned to him today. But you can check out all of the pictures of "This Guy" doing various things with and to Kaufman's laptop, including deleting his account.
Some speculate that this may just be a rather clever marketing scheme to promote Hidden. What do you think? My guess is that it's not - wouldn't it have been more effective to have the police cooperating and nabbing the suspect mere days later instead of months later?

Link via Mashable

i heard the dude is finally caught by OPD
here is the twitter msg about the latest update

Update: (May 31, 7:38 PM PST) Thanks to the power of the Internet, I have the attention of the Oakland Police, who are tracking this guy down RIGHT NOW! Follow @jmk on Twitter for updates!

Update: (May 31, 8:37 PM PST) ARRESTED! An Oakland police officer just called me to let me know that they arrested the guy in my photos! BOOYA! The police used my evidence (email which pointed to a cab service) that he was a driver and tricked him into picking them up. Nice work OPD!
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There was a similar story a few weeks back, about some guy who got his laptop stolen, he had the same software on his laptop, and he tweeted about it, got some people to help him out locate the thief and on and on until it was shipped back to him. . . . Is this the same story or a different one?
Two similar incidents in a row? I think it's a marketing campaign.
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SO, this guy who can afford a bed like that steals a macbook? And,
"somehow" the website for the "blogger" looks exactly like the product they wish to sell? you have been had. Sorry, but sticking some "muslim guy" in there just made you all fall for it. Not to mention, Everything that is wrong with the pictures of a "thief" So very convenient that the "owner" was logged in and watching as the "thief" deleted his user account. Something which takes only seconds on a mac. But no, I'm sure it's real.
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# 3 - Like the school did on students with MacBooks they loaned to them?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/harriton-high-school-spie_n_467491.html

This thief looks like a "sleeper" waiting to be activated. Perhaps being arrested was a blessing in disguise.
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oh viral marketing, you so crazy

http://thisguyhasmymacbook.tumblr.com/post/5821960131/guy-driving-away-with-my-macbook
yep totally, im just gonna browse this perloined computer on my way back to the lair. Good thing i must have a modified drinks holder to facilitate using my stolen macbook (now featuring MacBook features the new NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor). No wonder he cant wait to get home to use it!
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Stole a mac book? Put a piece of tape, correction fluid, black nail varnish or even half-chewed gum on the webcam before turning it on. Seriously, if that was their promo, they just shot themselves in the foot.
Intel has a remote immobilizer built into their CPU, or maybe it was just planned, never implemented. But even that is more for preventing data theft, not the hardware itself, which might be destroyed in frustration.
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The guy is Khat addict. Khat = Catha edulis = super addictive #$%@. "The plant material is chewed into a ball, which is kept for a while in the cheek, causing a characteristic
bulge (Nencini et al, 1986)."
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guy-driving-away-with-my-macbook

he was probably using google maps, he was a cab driver after all. Not the thief though, just bought/got stolen computer. Khat addicts are usually fr Africa, he looks from Pakistan/Bangladesh though ...
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