Stolen Mac Laptop Victim uses Built-in Camera to Catch Thieves

A couple of laptop thieves got away easy after taking a woman's laptop, but they couldn’t get away from her cleverness. She used Apple's software to remotely activate the laptop’s camera and took pictures of the men who took it.

The two thieves, Edmon Shahikian, 23, of Katonah and Ian Frias, 20, of the Bronx allegedly broke into the woman’s White Plains apartment on April 27 and stole nearly $5,000 worth of electronics including an Apple laptop. Her friend contacted her and said she appeared to be logged on to the Internet. The victim has a .mac account, which allows her to see or transfer files from anywhere and from any computer. She used her .mac’s “Back to My Mac” program and remotely logged on to the laptop from another computer. She then activated the laptop’s built-in camera to take pictures of the thieves. Initially, she just saw an empty chair but then Shahikian sat in front of the laptop. She immediately took a picture of him and went to the police. The police were able to identify the thieves from their database and arrested the two men. They were also able to recover most of the stolen property.