An Ottawa woman who recently moved to Calgary had to leave town without a prized possession: her high-end laptop computer. It was stolen from her apartment, and she says that although a GPS-based application shows the location of her stolen computer, police have been slow to act. On June 19, Kate Kawaja, 26, returned home to her locked apartment to find that her MacBook Pro was missing. She was devastated and says that the computer contained photos from her extensive travels, the beginnings of university applications, and a novel she was working on, amongst other things.
When police investigated, they told her that it appeared that whomever had taken her computer likely had a key. Only two people had keys: Kawaja, and her landlord, whom she identifies only as ‘Albert.’ Kawaja strongly suspected that her landlord was behind the theft, as they had fought the week before about property damage he said she was responsible for, but that she says predated her tenancy. Kawaja says her landlord was behaving “aggressively” toward her, and made repeated harassing phone calls.
One week later, the computer was gone, and her landlord’s harassing phone calls had stopped, she says. Police investigated, concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to move forward, and the case was closed. Read the entire story here: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Theft+victims+should+leave+detective+work+professionals+police/7025964/story.html
A similar case happened on Los Angeles because the computer was never reported stolen and the app provided no identification information: http://gizmodo.com/5906435/why-wont-the-lapd-help-recover-this-stolen-laptop
Comment: There are many FREE computer tracking device software applications available on the internet. The problem with them is that they are WORTHLESS if you are serious about getting your property back… They offer very little technical and NO recovery support… and most of them offer no documentation at all. Professional grade tracking software like PC PhoneHome and MacPhoneHome offer our clients fifteen years of experience tracking and recovering computing devices worldwide… There is a procedure police must go through in the investigation of the theft of a computing device. Ownership must be established… Serial numbers and other identifying indicia on the device must be established and documented… The time of theft must be established… The theft must be reported to the police in a timely fashion and a police report generated… Otherwise there will be no follow-up by the police… The investigating police officer will need to collect critical information to present to a judge to obtain a search warrant to recover the lost computer once it’s location has been obtained. Unless crucial data has been obtained NO SEARCH WARRANT WILL BE ISSUED… and you WON’T get your computing device back… Almost ALL of these so-called free apps are foreign made and these companies have very little experience dealing with US law enforcement. Almost all the personnel at Brigadoon Software, Inc. are former law enforcement personnel who have decades of experience in police investigations.
How PC PhoneHome and MacPhoneHome work… Once the software is installed, the computer sends a stealth email to a pre-determined email address of the user’s choice and to our server containing identifying indicia and the computer’s location every time the computer gets an internet connection. We archive those messages to help build a case if your computer is ever lost or stolen. Once a stolen computer calls in, we create a special case folder containing all the messages received from your machine PRIOR to its being stolen and all messages received AFTER it was stolen including its location. This information is included in a “SEARCH WARRANT SUPPORT AFFIDAVIT” that we supply to the investigating officer which includes the nomenclature of our software (how it works) and sample messages from your machine before and after it was stolen. These messages include positive identification data such as processor serial number, internal mac address and hard drive serial number. This information is critical to the investigating officer and the judge who must make a “probable cause” determination before issuing the search warrant. In fifteen years, we have NEVER has a search warrant petition denied… So… if you are SERIOUS about protecting you computing devices from theft… DON’T take a chance on an inferior so-called free app that offers little in the way of protection or support… Leave it to the professionals at http://www.brigadoonsoftware.com Our PC PhoneHome and MacPhoneHome products are MADE IN THE USA by US programmers and our staff of recovery agents are located in our HQ in New York… Not somewhere overseas… We can even protect your iPad and Android tablets from theft… Give us a call… Leave it to the Pros…
