Thieves caught on webcam

The Back to Mac service has proved a real winner for one customer after their laptop was stolen during a home robbery a few weeks ago.

The Back to Mac service has proved a real winner for one customer after their laptop was stolen during a home robbery a few weeks ago.

Kait Duplaga of White Plains, New York returned home on April 27 to find her apartment ransacked and property stolen – amongst the missing gear – two laptops, two televisions, two ipods and game consoles.

Cut to one week later and Duplaga is contacted by a friend saying her computer has logged onto the internet. Using the Back To My Mac service, Ms Duplaga was able to connect to the computer and take a photograph of the person sitting in front of it through the webcam mounted above the screen.
One of her flatmates recognised the the man as having attended a party at their apartment a few weeks prior to the break in. The following day the police were able to arrest two men Edmon Shahikian, 23, and Iain Frias, 20, and recovered most of the electronics stolen in the robbery.

“Our victim did a phenomenal job,” Lieutenant Eric Fischer told The Journal News.
“She knew her computer, and she let us know as soon as she obtained the information.
“We rolled on it immediately, and the result is the arrest of two burglary suspects and the recovery of most of the stolen property.”
Mr Shahikian and Mr Frias are due to appear in court this week on charges of burglary and possession of stolen property. Shahikian, is free on $3,500 bail. Frias, a Bronx resident, is being held at the Westchester County jail on $7,500 bail. Both are due in City Court on May 15.

Back To My Mac is a remote log-in service that allows users running Mac OS X Leopard to control their computer from any other Leopard-based Mac over the internet. It is available to subscribers to Apple’s online service .Mac.

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