If it turns out he bought it legitimately without knowledge of it being stolen that's fine, but he still should have been turned on to the fact it's filled with someone else's crap and the username is not his. Ignorance is no excuse, even though it may be commonplace.
Possible? Yes.
Likely? No.
This whole story screams promotion for Backblaze, it is also the first tag of the article.
That's still theft, unless he turned into the police. Since the owner filed a police report that scenario is unlikely.
Its not like Mark is a hard guy to Google for or unknown in Boston.
This is like people who, when told I'm from Russia, ask me if I know Dmitriy. Why, yes, I know several dozen.
Now he's just turned it into a plug for his startup. Smart guy.
Of course, the thief could always sue, but even that's a hard sell.
The vengeful part of me hopes this jerk gets laughed out of every job interview he ever has for being the guy who stole the computer and had his dancing video put on youtube.
I'm actually slightly embarrassed that this is on Hacker News right now.
I'm embarrassed because there is a disproportionality between {interesting things that I do} and {dumb things that I do that somehow get a ton of press} and I feel like doing the stuff in the latter category (and getting publicized about it on HN) bins me in a category of people who do trivial and noninteresting things.
And I'm embarrassed because an article about PG is currently second to this one.
I don't hate publicity. I only do when it's for stuff like this and it's on HN, which I think should be for more intelligent news than this.
Personally I found what you did to be hilarious and a perfect example of justice and (quite possibly) the best deterrent for this criminal to change his ways.
"Finally, and most disturbingly, Jeff was not heard from again. I personally e-mailed him for permission to run his story on ZUG, but after an initial response, I never heard from him again. All of his Web sites have come down, and he is nowhere to be found."
http://www.myspace.com/iameljefe http://twitter.com/mynameisjeff
My bet would be "the one who isn't in prison".
How? Preload a cheap laptop with software to let you monitor it. (This could be made way more sophisticated, and hard to eradicate, than a online backup subscription.) Leave it somewhere to be stolen. Monitor its later use for information that could allow stealing many times the initial laptop value from its later users. (Those later users may in some instances be the laptop thief, but could more often be others who thought they were buying a cheap used laptop.)
This is a good reason to beware deals that seem too good to be true, when purchasing used computer goods.
Allowing them to distribute via theft gives superior untraceability at scale, though it means the people receiving the laptops might not be as 'fat' targets as people who buy laptops through traceable transactions.
Tenant/house-guest (who is wanted for fraud in several states) ran off, leaving several thousand dollars in rent in arrears and in the process stealing three laptops.
FAB (the victim) gets some reports from friends a couple of weeks later that the perp is staying in a nearby motel. FAB goes around early-ish in the morning, knocks of the perps door, and the perp opens the door and the discussion gets heated. FAB is 'forced to defend himself' cough and after he finishes bouncing the perps head off the walls and is waiting for the police and ambulance to arrive (perp is un/semi-conscious), eh enters the motel room, recognises the three laptops, and puts them in the boot of his car.
Police arrive. Ambo turns up and hauls perp off to hospital. Police insist that FAB give the laptops to the motel manager, and they tell the motel manager to await further instructions.
Later that day perp checks himself out of hospital, goes back to motel, asks for laptops, manager gives them to him, and then high-tails it off to Victoria (the other end of Australia).
Moral of the story: police are useless no matter what country you are in.
Defcon 18 : Pwned by the owner - What happens when you steal a hackers computer -- zoz part http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oB28ksiIo
The Presentation is really funny, but some may find the "invasion of privacy" a little disturbing. Its kinda on the extreme side ( warned! ) but is very informative and funny nonetheless.
Implying using a data sync service turns one into one of the chosen few who "know how to use computers".
A friend made a short radio story about it: http://thebarkandthebite.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/cab-for...
This is not true.
The thief has offered an "apology" of sorts: http://bostinnovation.com/2011/03/23/dont-steal-a-computer-f...
And Mark Bao has his laptop back and "plans to sell the returned Apple and donate the proceeds to the Red Cross Japan fund." http://blogs.forbes.com/kashmirhill/2011/03/22/to-catch-a-co...
He's lucky he didn't get his hand cut off like in other countries.
"35 pass erase followed by OSX on a portable drive, resell immediately at a good distance for a good keep quite discount"
when i responded with
"what about some kind of advanced government software or computer forensics kit"
his rebuttal
"only going to get you if its laden with child porn"
i chuckled
