Stolen MacBooks

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MurrayC

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#100097 3-Apr-2012 10:58

Last Wednesday (28 March) St James Primary School in Christchurch was broken into and 11 Apple MacBooks (including chargers) were stolen.

Although this school is not a client of ours we have met the Principal a number of times. This low decile school is located in Aranui in the quake ravaged Eastern suburbs. As you can imagine, Jo, the Principal is absolutely gutted by this theft and the impact it is having on the students.

Here are the serial numbers: W8812GKQ0P0, W87447RYZ63, W8814AQU0P0, 4H531HMASE7, 45902NV9GU, W8812GMX0P0, W87447UT263, W8814APL0P0, 45921D5S9GU, S4H706447WGL, S4H7063YWWGL

It would be great to catch the mongrels that did this...

chiefie

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#604395 3-Apr-2012 11:07

Have these serial numbers been posted to NZ Police, and perhaps Trade Me team, and another possible contact be YOOBEE as well as precaution.

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MurrayC

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#604411 3-Apr-2012 11:23

Thanks Chefie - yes the Police have been involved since day one and TradeMe have been advised. We manage Apple networks and have advised all our contacts (and competitors) down here. Looks like they were stolen to order...

chiefie

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#604418 3-Apr-2012 11:32

Good luck and hope these laptops will be returned to school. Can't have these mongrels ruining the already-done-by-hardship Christchurch... Grrrrr!

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gehenna

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#604419 3-Apr-2012 11:34

What generation are these MacBooks? They're the polycarb ones right? Older or newer models?

th3r3turn

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#604428 3-Apr-2012 11:52

MurrayC: Last Wednesday (28 March) St James Primary School in Christchurch was broken into and 11 Apple MacBooks (including chargers) were stolen.

Although this school is not a client of ours we have met the Principal a number of times. This low decile school is located in Aranui in the quake ravaged Eastern suburbs. As you can imagine, Jo, the Principal is absolutely gutted by this theft and the impact it is having on the students.

Here are the serial numbers: W8812GKQ0P0, W87447RYZ63, W8814AQU0P0, 4H531HMASE7, 45902NV9GU, W8812GMX0P0, W87447UT263, W8814APL0P0, 45921D5S9GU, S4H706447WGL, S4H7063YWWGL

It would be great to catch the mongrels that did this...

Lol Arauni, but St James Primary School isnt a Low Decile school, well i wouldn't call them that. They are abit up them-self school. Hell i remember when i was a kid and getting kick out from playing on the field with my mates, then they added nice tall fence's to make sure we all knew that they didn't want anyone in there. Wainoni and Arauni primary school had no issues with kids playing on there field during out of school hours. Didn't know any kids that went there, and i grew up in Arauni all my life!

All i can say is bad luck and ill be amazed if you can get these people. This is Aranui and more care should have been taking in protecting these computers. What about the program to find your iPhone, do the mac book have this?

Kyanar

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#604447 3-Apr-2012 12:08

th3r3turn:

Lol Arauni, but St James Primary School isnt a Low Decile school, well i wouldn't call them that. They are abit up them-self school. Hell i remember when i was a kid and getting kick out from playing on the field with my mates, then they added nice tall fence's to make sure we all knew that they didn't want anyone in there. Wainoni and Arauni primary school had no issues with kids playing on there field during out of school hours. Didn't know any kids that went there, and i grew up in Arauni all my life!

All i can say is bad luck and ill be amazed if you can get these people. This is Aranui and more care should have been taking in protecting these computers. What about the program to find your iPhone, do the mac book have this?

Yup. If you enabled iCloud on the MacBook, you can use "Find My Mac" to (sort of) locate it if it goes missing. I would definitely recommend not relying just on that though, services which specialise in tracking and helping get back stolen laptops would be a better idea.

MurrayC

79 posts

Master Geek

#604448 3-Apr-2012 12:09

gehenna: What generation are these MacBooks? They're the polycarb ones right? Older or newer models?

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MacBook (13-inch Early 2008)iBook G4 (12-inch Mid 2005)MacBook (13-inch Late 2006)

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MurrayC

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#604452 3-Apr-2012 12:12

Kyanar:
th3r3turn:

Lol Arauni, but St James Primary School isnt a Low Decile school, well i wouldn't call them that. They are abit up them-self school. Hell i remember when i was a kid and getting kick out from playing on the field with my mates, then they added nice tall fence's to make sure we all knew that they didn't want anyone in there. Wainoni and Arauni primary school had no issues with kids playing on there field during out of school hours. Didn't know any kids that went there, and i grew up in Arauni all my life!

All i can say is bad luck and ill be amazed if you can get these people. This is Aranui and more care should have been taking in protecting these computers. What about the program to find your iPhone, do the mac book have this?

Yup. If you enabled iCloud on the MacBook, you can use "Find My Mac" to (sort of) locate it if it goes missing. I would definitely recommend not relying just on that though, services which specialise in tracking and helping get back stolen laptops would be a better idea.

Sounds interesting re tracking services. Can you tell me more?

Kyanar

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#605018 4-Apr-2012 12:39

MurrayC: Sounds interesting re tracking services. Can you tell me more?

As you can imagine, you do have to sign up and install a little hidden agent on the PC before they get stolen, but the two most well known services for this are LoJack and Prey.

Prey is free and open source, but only for up to three PCs (then you have to create a second account to get three more, and so on - or pay a minimum of $5/month for 3 PCs. You'd need the $40USD/month plan for 11 PCs). The upside of Prey is that you get the ability to turn on the webcam remotely and see who's nicked your PCs.

LoJack is the opposite - it's a paid service with no free edition and the software is a black box. It costs either $30USD per year per device or $45USD per year per device. You don't get the ability to turn the webcam on and see who has it, but like Prey you can lock it down. The upside of LoJack is that they actually have a recovery team who will work with the authorities to try and get your laptops back, and if you're paying for the $45USD per year plan, they guarantee they can recover it or they'll contribute $1000 to your replacement costs. They've also got a very good success record.

Obviously, it all depends how much you're willing to pay, and if you reckon it's worth paying to protect the laptops.