Law Technology

Kait Duplaga was understandably upset when her White Plains, NY apartment was robbed.  The crooks took flat-screen televisions, computer games, iPods, DVDs, and two laptop computers.  Fortunately for her, one of the items taken was her Mac laptop.

Although the police were not having much luck tracking the thiefs, Ms. Duplaga exploited the software installed on her Mac to track down the culprits and even get their photographs.  She utilized a feature called ?Back to My Mac,? which enabled her to access to her missing laptop remotely and to activate its built-in camera and PhotoBooth to take the culprit's photo.

One of her roommates recognized the person photograph as a friend of a friend, who had been a guest at their apartment a few weeks prior to the theft.  The deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains said ?It?s certainly a great use of what was probably meant as a business product. But if she had taken the picture and didn?t know who he was, we wouldn?t be in the same place as far as the investigation goes.?

Source:  "Stolen Laptop Helps Turn Tables on Suspects" by Lisa W. Foderaro, published in The New York Times.