Gizmodo Australia » thief

If You Steal Somebody’s iPhone and Don’t Know How to Use It, You’ll Go to Jail

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:35:15 +0000

Shoe designer Sayaka Fukuda was mugged by two men who made off with her purse and iPhone. After reporting it to police, she noticed a strange email in her outbox. Guess what happened next?

She knew she didn’t send any email, so she opened the attachment, which was a self-portrait her attacker emailed to himself. She forwarded the picture to police, who quickly matched it to a mug shot of Dacquan Mathis.

Fukuda made the not so bright move of emailing Mathis directly, telling him the cops were onto him. He cheerfully replied to her, “I will kill you! I know where you live, I know where you work. I’ll send people.”

But we all know how this ends—the cops busted him, and he confessed to jacking the iPhone as well as another mugging involving an iPod.

Moral of the story: Whenever you steal a piece of technology, make sure you know how it works, or you’ll get made fun of on a bunch of blogs. Oh yeah, and go to jail and stuff. [NY Post via Gothamist - Thanks Ace!]

MobileMe Rescues iPhone from Thief

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:37:47 +0000

Once upon a time, a guy named Rob got his iPhone 3G stolen at the dry cleaners. Thankfully, he was subscribed to MobileMe, which at the end saved the day. Or so he says.

According to Rob, after getting his iPhone stolen he went to the Apple Store to buy a new one. He proceeded to set up it up with MobileMe, the service that allows mails, contacts, and all kinds of data to be synchronised with Apple’s servers. The synchronised data is then merged into a database, and then pushed to all the devices set with the same MobileMe account.

This was the key to the case. A day later he noticed something weird in his new iPhone: There were contacts which never were there. He quickly realised what was happening: The dumb thief forgot to wipe out the mobile phone, so Rob had the power to identify those contacts–after that, he called them, got the thieve contact information, and told the police, who apprehend the thief and recovered the iPhone.

He is now selling the old iPhone in eBay, along with this story. Is it too cool to be true? Maybe. Tell us your opinion in the comments. [eBay via TUAW]

Man Uses Remote Desktop to Catch Laptop Thief, Watch Porn Remotely

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0000

A NY laptop-theft victim finally caught the criminal thanks to the use of a remote desktop application he had installed in his computer. However, it wasn’t as easy as connecting to the notebook over the internet and locating him: His investigation lasted for almost a month, watching his laptop screen as the thief used it for everything except for giving a clue about his whereabouts. And yes, you know exactly what “everything” means:

It was kind of frustrating because he was mostly using it to watch porn. I couldn’t get any information on him.

Finally, the suspect wrote his name and address to register to a website. José Cáceres, the victim, called the police, who arrested the man within a few hours. [AP -- Thanks jagslive]

Unlucky Thief Busted For The Third Time in Four Months For Sealing Police Sat Navs

Sean Fallon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:50:00 +0000

It appears that 21 year old James Milsom is in the running for both the dumbest and unluckiest criminial in the UK after being busted for the third time in four months for stealing sat navs from undercover police cars. As you can see, the CCTV system in the vehicle did a pretty good job of capturing the subject–so he is off to another 14 weeks in the slammer. When he gets out, maybe he could team up with the criminals in the video after the break and form a kind of anti-Justice league for morons.

[Daily Mail via Neatorama]

If You Buy an iPhone Off Craigslist for Really Cheap in a Dark Alley in a Shady Neighbourhood, You Will Get Mugged

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:30:00 +0000

And now, a Giz PSA: The iPhone 3G might have dealt a pretty solid blow to the value of a vanilla iPhone, but when you see an offer on Craigslist for a case of 10 iPhones for US$2,000 with a meetup in an isolated part of a shady neighbourhood, it might not be legit!

Tired of yuppy scum and their fruitphones, a bunch of scammers posted bulk cases of iPhones at deep discounts on Craigslist, luring hip grandfathers and yupsters alike to “desolate locations in Flatbush, East Flatbush and Flatlands” in NY. Upon arrival, they were mugged at gunpoint by the gang of four, who stole thousands of dollars from as many as 12 ~~suckers~~ victims before getting busted June 4 by undercover cops. Remember kids, the only legit discounts come from Apple, real iPhones from real people cost real scratch (for now, anyway). [NY Post]

Stupidest Thief Ever Checks Reflection in CCTV Camera After Swiping Kid’s Necklace

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:20:00 +0000

A mugger who stole jewelry from a teenager on a tram has dropped himself right in it, after he clocked himself in the on-board security cameras. The victim, a 16-year-old boy, was travelling with two friends on a tram in Bromley, a South London suburb, when he was approached by another kid who, after admiring the necklace and bracelet, snatched them. Rather than fleeing immediately, the dumbass tea-leaf sauntered up to the CCTV camera on board the tram, and struck a pose with the stolen items. The mugger, who claimed he was carrying a knife when the victim asked for his gear back, was described by a British Transport policeman, as “not the brightest spark. He was there for a long time and either didn’t care or wasn’t aware he was being filmed.” [Daily Mail]