Owners of missing gadgets can now do their own sleuthing

INNOVATION ECONOMY

September 04, 2011|By Scott Kirsner, Globe Correspondent

One Tuesday in May, Mike Schroll walked into the Methuen Police Department to report a stolen laptop. It had been taken from a car in Boston over the weekend. But Schroll didn’t just show up with a picture and serial number. Thanks to a piece of software called Prey that was installed on the laptop, he had photos of the suspected thief, his name, and the address where Schroll believed he was using the computer.

In a small number of cases locally, victims of theft are coming to police with solid information about who and where the thieves are, thanks to software that can control a missing computer remotely, and GPS and Wi-Fi technology built in to the latest mobile phones and tablets. As the technology becomes cheaper, we may be entering the era of “LoJack for everything,’’ when nearly any object of value, if stolen, will be able to help police track it down.

Josh Bob parked his car near Fenway Park in February 2010. He left a laptop bag on the front floor, with two computers inside. Someone smashed a window and took the bag. Using software called TeamViewer, which he had installed so he could have remote access to the machines, Bob was able to take video and photos of the people using the computers. He watched as a teenage girl logged into her Facebook account, which mentioned the school she attended. Boston police showed up at the school, got the girl’s address, and then recovered both computers a week after the theft.

“They were skeptical at first, when I was e-mailing them everything I was collecting,’’ said Bob. “But once they were able to track down the computers, I think they were quite pleased. It’s a solved case for them, instead of just another stolen laptop.’’ (The lesson Bob shared on his blog: Keep laptops locked in your trunk.)

One local case that attracted national attention this spring involved a Bentley University student, Mark Bao. Bao had installed an automatic data backup service called Backblaze on his laptop, which enabled him to peruse the new files that had been created after the $1,800 MacBook was stolen from a dorm. One file was a video of the alleged thief dancing in his kitchen to the song “Make It Rain.’’ Bao posted the video on YouTube, where it became a viral hit, racking up 1.6 million views.

Bao was also able to gather an e-mail address and Facebook page, which he provided to Bentley police. The alleged thief returned the laptop, and is now facing charges of larceny in Waltham District Court.