Stolen laptop returned courtesy Back to My Mac information and police work

In late August we told you the story of 'Jim' who had his Mac laptop stolen along with some other computers and household goods. For the heck of it, he tried using Back to My Mac to find his machine. Back to My Mac is a feature of Apple's MobileMe service. Jim was surprised to find the Mac was online. He watched whoever had the laptop searching job sites, and cruising the web. He even saw some blurry pictures of people hovering around the computer.

The local police spent some time on the investigation, and finally recovered the laptop. Just a few days ago Jim picked it up. Many of his files were gone, but the Mac itself was in pretty good shape.

The investigators said the laptop had changed hands at least 5 times, and was probably used at least once as payment in a drug deal.

The perps may never be identified because of the laptop constantly changing hands, and no one seems to be talking. A happier ending would have been to have the crooks caught, but at least the laptop is back, and Back to My Mac helped accomplish the rescue. There have been other cases of Back To My Mac rescuing Macs and Apple's Find My iPhone service (also part of MobileMe) tracking stolen iPhones.

Thanks to Jim for sharing his story with us.