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Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.

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Re: Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.

#31

Post by dnsworks »

"You left your Laptop and your Camera in in a car? Really? Unattended? And it got stolen? Sucks to be you, I hope you had insurance!"

That's about what I would expect a police officer to say. At least, that's what they say here in San Francisco. Then you file a report, and make an insurance claim. Do you have a friend at the ISP they use who could sort through some logs for you so that you could go and retrieve it yourself? That's probably your best bet for getting your property back, and that's quite the long shot.

Re: Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.

#32

Post by dnsworks »

johngalt wrote: post #30

The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops. We had him on camera, multiple witnesses. Our security found the ebay account where they were being sold and even tricked the g…

"The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops."

The guy who stole these 14 laptops should get arrested, go to prison, then come out and become a best selling author on the topic of Social Engineering (which means he'll sell 1,000 copies, but still, a good use of his craft).

That being said, did it really represent a gross loss of $30k? A $2k laptop is worth $1,200 the moment you open the box. Were they old laptops? Mostly depreciated? $10k in an ATM is always worth $10k.

Re: Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.

#33

Post by [deleted] »

grandalf wrote: post #13

You should avoid getting into direct conflict with the thief. I suggest putting up signs offering a $200 cash no questions asked reward if the laptop is returned to the hotel front desk. Perhaps hotel management can knock on doors for you announcing the reward. If you want to then take the laptop to the police and have it dusted for fingerprints that is your decision. Most petty thieves just want cash and if the lapt…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.

#34

Post by johngalt »

dnsworks wrote: post #32
johngalt wrote: post #30

The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops. We had him on camera, multiple witnesses. Our security found the ebay account where they were being sold and even tricked the g…

"The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops." The guy who stole these 14 laptops should get arrested, go to prison, then come out and become a best selling author on the t…

RE: Social Engineering -> these were software developers that gave up their laptops btw, not just random business users. So he must have had a good pitch.

The laptops were all less than a year old. But you could easily argue the loss value was less than their purchase value. However we still had to spend $30K to replace them all.

The data on the laptops also wasn't worthless. Thankfully the guy was just an ebay/thief and not interested in selling our sourcecode.

Re: Ask HN: My friend's computer was stolen, and I might have the IP address.

#36

Post by dnsworks »

johngalt wrote: post #34
dnsworks wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The police won't do anything. We had a laptop theft where someone just walked into our building and started picking up laptops. He basically said "hey I'm from IT and we are upgrading, I'm picking up old laptops and then you'll get a new one in a couple hours." He walked out with 14 laptops." The guy who stole these 14 laptops should get arrested, go to prison, then come out and become a best selling author on the t…

RE: Social Engineering -> these were software developers that gave up their laptops btw, not just random business users. So he must have had a good pitch. The laptops were all less than a year old. But you could easily argue the loss value was less than their purchase value. However we still had to spend $30K to replace them all. The data on the laptops also wasn't worthless. Thankfully the guy was just an ebay/thief…

If he hadn't, well you would have learned the hard way to have a strong laptop encryption policy, wouldn't you have?
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