<story><title>Why you don&apos;t steal from a hacker.</title><url>http://infosec20.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-you-dont-steal-from-hacker.html</url><text>My flat was raided and ransacked during the London riots, but thanks to tracking software I fed intel to the London Metro police until he was apprehended and my laptop returned.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>giberson</author><text>Glad the person got their Mac back, but why does this story and ones like it always end at the recovery of the property? Could we get an update on the &lt;i&gt;punishment&lt;/i&gt; of the criminal? I&apos;d like to know what kind of repercussions the criminals suffer--do they get prosecuted? I&apos;m just curious if these software tracking systems have been used in court as evidence to convict any of these criminals.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>I was wondering that too. I was thinking that perhaps this guy had gone and screwed around with his social network given the facebook screen cap at the end. Of course if someone steals your laptop, and using software you&apos;ve installed you keylog all their secrets and you use their credit card to buy themselves a hundred pizzas each from 10 stores around town, that would be a bit much perhaps.&lt;p&gt;I know from experience (not me of course, but that of some kids who stole some stuff from a neighbor) that juveniles who are caught and convicted of petty theft basically get a slap on the wrist, a stern warning about what will happen if they do it again, and sent home.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why you don&apos;t steal from a hacker.</title><url>http://infosec20.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-you-dont-steal-from-hacker.html</url><text>My flat was raided and ransacked during the London riots, but thanks to tracking software I fed intel to the London Metro police until he was apprehended and my laptop returned.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>giberson</author><text>Glad the person got their Mac back, but why does this story and ones like it always end at the recovery of the property? Could we get an update on the &lt;i&gt;punishment&lt;/i&gt; of the criminal? I&apos;d like to know what kind of repercussions the criminals suffer--do they get prosecuted? I&apos;m just curious if these software tracking systems have been used in court as evidence to convict any of these criminals.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Apocryphon</author><text>I&apos;m not sure if it&apos;s that easy for the victim to find that information. My family was robbed several years ago and while the police eventually reported that they caught the perps, that was all of the detail they left. Similarly, my girlfriend had credit cards stolen once and neither the police nor the credit card company gave any information except that they had found the people who stole the card. Perhaps this discretion is to prevent people from attempting vigilante followup actions?</text></comment>