IBM customer support nabs a thief

A peek through the Engadget archives reveals a regular hall- of-shame of techno-illiterate criminals. Now, a 48-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska man has been nabbed after making a call to IBM technical support to get "his" laptop working. The technician alerted the local po-po after the meathead provided the serial number of a unit already reported stolen. Here's a tip to all you budding perps — d-a-t-a-b-a-s-e-s, dude. Learn it, love it, live it.

[via The Raw Feed]

[John Laur @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Too bad Apple wont follow suit. Their policy is 100% the opposite of IBM on this point, and it's really a shame.

[z iz 4 zigma @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I'd like to know where this particular customer help centre is located...

[dubyasee @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

We had a laptop stolen out of an employee's car. The thief took it to Best Buy to attempt to get them to reset the power on password. Best Buy called Dell, and Dell told them it was property of my employer. Best Buy calls the cops. The cops call my employer to verify the machine was ours. Finally, the cops team up with Best Buy to capture the thief under the ruse that Best Buy had fixed the laptop. Stupid criminals.

[jake @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

not denying criminals can be complete idiots, it's also possible this man who called the customer center bought a stolen laptop from a reseller or pawnshop..

[Flood @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

My powerbook was stolen and it was unclear to me with whom to report the serial number - other than the authorities, of course.

Any suggestions? Apple didn't seem interested.

[Arthur Barnhouse @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

First time my hometown gets mentioned and it's a story about the stupidest man who ever walked the earth. Kind of a downer.

[fuser @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Again to bad Dell's policy is the opposite too...they will still send out someone to fix a reported "stolen" laptop. It gets flagged as stolen but very rarely does Dell do anything. The philosophy is that it is not their problem if it is stolen but it is their problem to make sure that it works

[Mike S @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Apple doesnt follow this policy.

Lets all write an angry letter!
/rawr

[Nathan Beckstrand @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Adding to what #4 said; If you buy a laptop (or anything) from ebay, don't call tech support when it breaks.

[skeletonliar @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Are you sure Apple doesn't have this policy? If so, why did the cops show up at my friends house to confiscate his (apparently stolen, never buy your computer out of the back of a van) computer after he sent it in to Apple for repairs?

[Edward @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Most of IBM PC support is done out of Atlanta, GA. These guys are my hero. I'd like to see some offshore Dell support tool do this for their customers.

[Gypsy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

#9 Not true. We bought a 30GB iPod on ebay and it recently broke. We just called them and they fixed it for us for no charge.