I love this story. A blogger called Greg Martin discovered his flat ransacked and his laptop stolen the day after the main London riots. He reported it to police, and they did all the usual stuff, but what was special about the situation was that Martin had installed some tracking software on his computer.
When he activated it, it started sending back information. The looter was surfing religious revelation sites, executive cars on Autotrader, and then Facebook. The tracker returned Facebook login details, his full name, his address, and heaps of other stuff. The webcam on the laptop also sent pictures back.
As an aside, it’s hard to believe people wear that kind of get up indoors, isn’t it? And he looks like a grotty little weasel, doesn’t he? Some of the other stuff from his Facebook site show what a prat he is – but then, most people’s Facebook sites do that, so maybe that doesn’t prove anything.
Martin sent all the information to the Metropolitan Police and let them get on with it. His laptop was returned.
Let’s hope the little shit who had it gets a custodial sentence like the courts have been handing out to all the other sad acts who were involved in those riots.
Incidentally, the tracking software is called Prey– and it is open source (or free).