Joshua Kaufman Tracks Stolen Laptop Via Tumblr Blog And 'Hidden' App (UPDATE)

UPDATE 1: According to a recent update on Kaufman's Tumblr blog, the police have apprehended the man from the photos. Writes Kaufman:

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!

Kaufman later tweeted that the police have recovered his laptop.

UPDATE 2: "I got my laptop back," Kaufman tweeted Thursday, along with a photo of the happy reunion.
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PREVIOUSLY: MacBook owner Joshua Kaufman is currently tracking his missing laptop and remotely using the device's webcam to gather photos of the alleged thief. He's also sharing the "mugshots": Kaufman is posting the photos on a Tumblr blog called "This Guy Has My MacBook."

According to Kaufman's Tumblr account, his laptop went missing in Oakland, CA, on March 21, 2011.

"I reported the crime to the police and even told them where it was, but they can't help me due to lack of resources," Kufman writes in the blog's description.

Luckily, Kaufman had equipped his laptop with the app Hidden, which pinpoints the device's location, stealthily snaps photos of the user and collects screen grabs of activity taking place on the device.

So far, Kaufman has posted several photos of the person currently using his laptop and has included pictures of the man trying to access a Gmail account and attempting to delete Kaufman's MacBook user account.

Kaufman's story is similar to that of Sean Power, who live-tweeted the search for his stolen laptop and located the device using tracking software Prey. In fact, Kaufman tweeted on Tuesday that Power has given him some pointers on recovering his property.

Visit "This Guy Has My MacBook" to see how Kaufman's search is coming along, or follow him on Twitter @Jmk.

Comments

[jamiecole1929]

12:55 AM on 06/12/2011

If the app is capable of locating the laptop anywhere on the planet, to within meters, then why did it take almost 3 months to find it? http://bit.ly/mkFtgf

[sandrasotelo]

06:44 AM on 06/03/2011

If the app is capable of locating the laptop anywhere on the planet, to within meters, then why did it take almost 3 months to find it? http://bit.ly/mkFtgf

[Max Shaw]

03:32 PM on 06/02/2011

Well done sir. Now you and your laptop can finally go on that honeymoon.

[conservicide]

02:38 PM on 06/02/2011

if this is an advertisement
what this tells me is:

that someone can
put software on my computer
that can
watch me,
what I am typing,
what I am surfing,
what I am buying
and where I am.

not good.

[ewj1]

10:02 PM on 06/01/2011

Why is this news (except for being an Apple ad), people have been doing that for years. Just check out isightcapture or lojack.

[Mandles99]

07:25 PM on 06/01/2011

Lawdy, Lawdy... First " The Rapture," then this fool has to be in Oakland...

[conservicide]

02:39 PM on 06/02/2011

the place has a daily murder report

[ywcachieve]

03:50 PM on 06/01/2011

I like. It's a good app to have..

[hxjp]

02:57 PM on 06/01/2011

congrats to the owner for his savvy, to oakland pd for finally doing something. for all you who don't get a police report every day in your inbox, it is crazy out there. my sf report contains over two dozen incidences, followed by often 6 stolen/found cars/licenses/tags, as well as hit and runs. be safe. drive safe. sounds like the hidden program has got game.
glad to have good news for once.

[hifriend]

01:42 PM on 06/01/2011

The police didn't have the resources to follow up on this crime???? There must be at least 100 officers working every hour. There are not 100 crimes committed every hour! Why didn't they have the resources? There are no serial killers, or terriosts being hunted down at this time. The cops are just driving up and down the streets looking for a crime being committed. This one was handed to them on a platter. All they had to do was go where the victim told them to go. What good are they ,if we solve the crime for them and they still don't arrest the culprit? This is just stupid!!

[dbrett480]

12:44 AM on 06/11/2011

Due to budget cuts police officers in Oakland have to focus on violent crimes and crimes in progress. Go on a ride along and see what officers actually have to deal with before offering your uninformed advice on how officers should do their jobs.

[Barbara Graham]

11:27 AM on 06/01/2011

Now that the Macbook's been recovered, um...what's that guy's FB nick again?

[KarateKid]

07:59 AM on 06/01/2011

It's kind of hard to believe that it is anything but an advertisement for Hidden, if you look at the angles of the photos. Would someone drive around with an open MacBook that he had just stolen? And, he's in bed and staring into an open MacBook? Or sleeping on the couch NEXT to his stolen MacBook?

[joehark]

03:55 AM on 06/01/2011

That Tumbler blog is one ugly, illegible web site. Gray letters on a black background. How friggin' creative. I suspect that the resource the cops needed was a cool eleven-year-old who could read more than one line of the thing without getting a migraine.

I'm glad the thief has been caught so the site can be taken down.

[Andra Claudia Garcia]

02:21 AM on 06/01/2011

They caught him yesterday

this photo of the guy is funny
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lm2tsy9bdN1qkzrzto1_500.jpg

[Tunghoy]

07:35 PM on 06/01/2011

Uh.........................what do you suppose he's looking at????

Kaufman might want to clean his laptop off really well before touching it.

[Sean Richardson]

09:59 PM on 05/31/2011

Is there any remote shred of doubt that that page was created solely as an ad for Hidden?

[ewj1]

10:06 PM on 06/01/2011

Well it could be a Apple, tumblr, and Hidden ad. But no real news.

[shthar]

07:36 PM on 05/31/2011

Ok, this has officially happened enough times that it is not news anymore.

Unless you can add nudity.

[Jack Daniels Esq]

07:49 AM on 06/01/2011

lol - this is so old its lame