Tuesday, March 22, 2011

How to recover your stolen computer



So at an unnamed bar/venue on 6th street downtown (that I really wish I could name because of the way they handled the situation) during SXSW, my book bag, which had my computer and passport along with many other items that I hold close to my heart were stolen right from the back area of the venue. I was upset, but surprisingly held it together and kept my cool. I guess I realized it was just (expensive) stuff and that at least I nor anyone else was hurt. Although, I did lose the Alabama song from my 50 states project. I waited a few days to file a police report in hopes that one of the bands took it by accident.

At the same time, I remembered signing up my computer for this website called Prey Project http://preyproject.com/ it is a website that allows you to track a missing computer through it's ip address and it will take screen shots and a picture of the person using it every 10-20 minutes. It will give you a rough location of where your computer is as well and it's FREE!!! So for the first few days I figured it was gone for good because I got zero notifications. Then yesterday, (the day after I filed a police report) I got 7 notifications in my email starting at 4:30 AM. It gave me the following pictures:



Got the dudes face and his name, plus a google maps location of where my computer was. CRAZYYYY! So later that day, the police notified me that they found my computer and I was nice enough of a guy to not press charges on this jerk. I still can't believe I got my computer back and still have all 49 states recorded!!!! So please share this story with all of your friends and please register your computer with http://preyproject.com/ it's free!

Shaved my beard and looking like a kid in a candy store.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

That is INCREDIBLE! Way to go!

Dave said...

Nice job! However, I think not pressing charges only encourages this sort of behavior from criminals.

Unknown said...

I agree with Dave.

Lisa said...

Can we note how creepy this guy is?! And is he not wearing a shirt? Way to be a creeper laptop thief.

So glad you got it back. That's wonderful. And thanks for blogging for us at SXSW! Loved reading your posts.

-Lisa White/Gapers Block

jason.lemahieu said...

I agree that pressing charges is definitely the right thing to do in this situation.

thisismiguel53 said...

Hey is that site actually legit? like i know you said it worked but are you sure like in the terms or something along that it didnt say it would track what your doing? Thanks!

Unknown said...

Awesome that you got your laptop back! I installed Prey a while ago, and hopefully will never ever have to use it.

I do think you should have pressed charges, though. Who knows how many other laptops or bags this guy has swiped?