Instead of waiting for a stolen Apple Powerbook to show up on eBay, a firm in Sydney, Australia chose to post it themselves and inform the world of the crime.
The victim of the Powerbook theft placed a description of the laptop on eBay, along with details of the crime. Although the auction has been titled, “STOLEN THEFT Apple Powerbook 17 Inch – Sydney 24 Jan 06 PLEASE LOOK! DO NOT BUY THIS STOLEN LAPTOP!” 15 people have bid on it anyway.
Pictures of the thieves and their getaway car have been posted in the auction. However, the photos of the criminals had to be Photoshopped to protect their identities, as the victim indignantly noted:
Please note that for legal reasons (can you believe this?) we have had to alter the faces of these morons to protect ourselves from any future legal action from these “victims”.
The tale of the crime has become a saga, as the victim of the theft has been updating the eBay auction with more information. Whoever stole the laptop has been connecting it to the Internet; the laptop’s owner gleefully wrote that they now had the IP address being used.
Also, the thieves called the owner and offered to return the laptop by cab. Even though they call-blocked the number they used, the victim pointed out how the police can retrieve that number from phone records based on the time the call was made to the laptop’s owner.
The thieves then followed up that call with another call at 2:20 AM to the owner to say they wouldn’t be returning the laptop. After that, news of the theft began to circulate. A radio show and a TV station interviewed the victim, and numerous people have asked for the original photos of the criminals to post online themselves. The victim had to decline the photo requests for legal reasons as noted.
A reward of AUS $500 has been offered for information leading to the return of the laptop.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
