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Thieves caught with Apple employee's notebook

updated 03:50 pm EDT, Mon May 12, 2008

Thieves caught via Mac


Two thieves have been caught in White Plains, New York as a result of Mac hardware and software, the New York Times reports. Edmon Shahikian and Ian Frias are accused of having stolen thousands of dollars' worth of items from an apartment, including TVs, iPods, DVDs and car rims; their arrest however is tied to the theft of two notebooks, one of which belonged to Kait Duplaga, an employee at an Apple Store in Westchester. Clues to the suspects' identities developed when a friend told Duplaga her Mac notebook was online.

She then realized that by using another Mac, she could exploit .Mac's Back to My Mac feature, which allows remote access to a subscriber's system via Mac OS X Leopard. This enabled her to take a photo of Frias, and retrieve an image of Shahikian; both were known to one of Duplaga's roommates, and had been party guests at the apartment a few weeks earlier.

Shahikian has been released on $3,500 bail, but Frias is still in Westchester County Jail on $7,500 bail.


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. climacs

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2001

    +5

    awesome!

    I hope Apple thinks to make some sort of advertising out of this. Now that's 21st century crime-busting, baby!

  1. scotte75ky

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2008

    +4

    alright!

    Way to go!!!

  1. Guest

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 1999

    +5

    Hi, I’m a Mac…

    Hi, I’m a Mac…

    …and I’m the FBI!

  1. Monde

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2004

    0

    Howzabout

    Hi, I'm a Mac..

    ...and, I'll be your prison beyach.
    ...and, I'm in need of weight watchers.
    ...and, I'm a looser.
    ...and, I'm Ballmer's son
    ...and, I normally surf on a Dell.

    the guest started something here-do contribute.

    Ha. Also, in all seriousness, pick your friends carefully. This is by far the most common way crooks scout for new swag.

  1. vasic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2005

    +5

    Rather unlikely situation

    This is definitely not a scenario likely to happen often. First, a person with a dot-mac account, second, a friend who also has a Mac and a dot-mac, third, this friend has actually noticed the victim logging into the dot-mac. In addition, we have the perpetrator ignorant enough not to notice that something is happening on the stolen Mac; then to notice it, but too late. Finally, the person actually recognises the perpetrator's picture.There are several software titles that can more effectively recover a laptop (Undercover, GadgetTrack, MacPhoneHome, etc.). Perhaps Apple should look into the features and add similar functionality to Leopard or the next cat). All these will require user to provide a specific password under certain conditions (for example, upon start-up) and if none is entered, take pictures and video with iSight and send them, together with the IP address, WiFi name(s) and other data to the owner. These sites are abundant with testimonies of fast and safe recovery.This BackToMyMac feature was used very creatively on very dumb criminals. She was rather lucky...

  1. Monde

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2004

    +2

    One More Thing

    A quick google search and a use of google mapping software reveal that Edmon Shahikian is-in fact-the ultimate looser. It's obvious from the satellite image of his home, he lives with Mom

  1. Titanium Man

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Mar 2001

    +4

    gadzooks

    Can't anybody online spell "loser" anymore? It's "loser." One "O."" "Looser" is an adjective meaning "not as tight."

  1. horvatic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2002

    0

    Pretty dumb thieves

    You got to be pretty dumb not to notice the green led come on telling you the webcam was operating.

  1. Monde

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2004

    0

    What I meant to say was

    Looo-who-who-who-who-Zzzzer.

    Said, of course in classic Ace Ventura style.

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