I thought I'd share this as it may just help someone on here in the future.

Friends of ours were out for a meal near the end of their holiday (not Portugal) when their apartment was burgled.
The thief was after high value items and stole a couple of laptops. They reported the crime and had to return to the UK.

Luckily for them, and unluckily for the thief, they had software on that laptop that enable a friend to monitor when the thief connected the laptop to the Internet and turn on the built-in web camera while he was using it and take some photos of him!

They then emailed copies of the photos to a friend in the resort and she took them round to the local Police who instantly recognised the low-life.

They went round and, much to his surprise, he was arrested and both laptops were returned to the rightful owner. Result

There are different types of this software but the one I use is aptly called Prey.
http://preyproject.com

It is very simple to set up.

Essentially you download the software and it just runs silently on your laptop/PC.

If your laptop ever goes missing you log on to their web site from another computer and flag that your laptop has been stolen, and wait.

As soon as the miscreant connects your laptop to the internet, Bingo. The software checks in, sees the flag that it has been stolen and emails you. It then tries to provide its location, photos of the user and the accounts (ie Facebook) they are using via email to help identify the individual.

Best of all, the light version is completely free. I have it protecting two laptops and a PC.

Hopefully I will never need it but, should the worst happen, at least I'll have a way to strike back

Hey! that sounds good to me get the barstewards locked up, well done.

I saw a program 'Police/Camera/Action' type TV program a few weeks ago where they used the iPhones built-in "Find my iPhone" facility to guide Police straight to the thieves as they walked down a street with the stolen phone in their bag.

Great use of technology

MJH wrote:I saw a program 'Police/Camera/Action' type TV program a few weeks ago where they used the iPhones built-in "Find my iPhone" facility to guide Police straight to the thieves as they walked down a street with the stolen phone in their bag.

Great use of technology

Great in this instance, but it does verge on the "Big Brother" syndrome, especially regarding the iPhone.
One insurance company (cars) is offering a gadget to fit in your car which monitors your driving, not good if one tends to "motor along", got you by the short and curlies.

it is only big brother if you subscribe to the above mentioned so the choice is yours ,i think that anything that will deter the scumbags that take advantage of hard working peoples property because they are too *ucking lazy to get up in a morning&do some graft should be praised!

Wise words alf1956.

Craig

Technology can be good or bad depending on whose hands it is in.

The offence of stealing that computer is serious and no laughing matter for the victim, but for the idiotic thief who starred unwittingly on his own web-cam show and was caught then that is actually funny. Just a shame the humour came from a situation that gave the owner of the computer anger and worry.

Years ago on these CCTV camera footage TV programmes, a baggage handler at one of the main UK airports was opening suitcases and stealing items from passengers. After many complaints CCTV was installed and sure enough the culprit was identified. It did not need close-up examining of the footage. The fool saw the camera in the corner, took a ladder to climb up to on FULL FACE VIEW and started to smash it with some instrument. Maybe he thought the 'film' was stored in the small camera as opposed to the footage being transmitted electronically. He got a prison sentence. He would have got artificial hands and limbs if he was caught in some middle east countries.

He would have got artificial hands and limbs if he was caught in some middle east countries.

Do we need Sharia law .... nah, just chop their hands off.