Thief gets nabbed by laptop’s camera

A thief in Oakland, California wasn't so lucky when the laptop he stole was calling back with images of the crook to the legal owner.

Muthanna Aldebashi of Alameda was arrested this week on suspicion of possessing stolen goods, according to a police spokeswoman who spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle. The 27 year old taxi driver is being held now in jail.

A web campaign to catch the thief was launched by Joshua Kaufman who filed a police report in late March which stated that someone broke into his house and stolen his Apple MacBook laptop.

Cleverly, Kaufman had installed software called ‘Hidden' which follows the computers movements through a tracking device, and took pictures of the mans face when he was using the machine. Some of the photo's became internet hits, when the owner posted them online. The thief is pictured without a shirt, driving his car and then is asleep on the couch.

Twitter users joined in the hunt, sharing the pictures with other users. Kaufman wrote ‘This Guy Has My Macbook' on his blog, but Oakland police were unable to arrest the suspect due to a lack of resources, despite getting Kaufman's tips on the laptops location.

The media intervened, calling the police to verify Kaufman's story and investigators found out that the original report was incorrectly closed. On Tuesday however, undercover officers had Aldebashi's taxi company send him for a pickup and they arrested him when he arrived. They found the laptop at his home.

Many users could use this tip to secure their property, install security software which can ‘call back' to the owner. In this case the guy got his laptop back and the crook was arrested.

Kitguru says: We all like a happy ending.

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