My sisters stolen laptop & Ipod

[Kimkimkim]

My sister lives in New York and her laptop & Ipod were stolen at the end of April. She reported it, but wanted to do more.
She was told about a website that police officers developed to recover lost & stolen property and it's free. She posted her items but did not include in the description where she had reported this theft.
She received a phone call from one of these officers and he explained that if you are posting stolen property you must include all police information.
My sister has not even received a call from the department she reported this theft to. She was very impressed that this is not just some website attempting to obtain your information. I suggest everyone have a look at

Juststolen.net

[Kopji]

When you sign-up for a JUSTSTOLEN.NET registration you will be asked to provide certain information, such as your name and contact information. JUSTSTOLEN.NET or its affiliates may use this information to tailor presentations and offers to you, facilitate your use of the service, provide personalized services, and communicate separately with you. Personal information will NOT be shared, distributed or viewable by any parties outside of JUSTSTOLEN.NET.

...
I think it would be crazy to register something like your credit card numbers with this.

[tim]

In principle this seems a good idea. In the UK loads of stolen stuff is recovered by police, but it never gets back to it's rightful owner, 'cos nobody knows who they are.
That said, I would want to check the site out thoroughly before registering. They don't ask for your credit card details, which is good. They don't ask for your name and address - just a description and serial numbers of the goods, and an email. Whether they could trace you from that, I don't know.
I would want to know, for instance, how they were funded.

[geni]

A first post advertiseing a website. Hmmm probably a scam. No point in looking further.

[tkingdoll]

I would want to know, for instance, how they were funded.

Perhaps they charge for reuniting the owner with the goods. Which would be cheeky.

[tim]

Probably not a good decision, posting on a skeptical website..........:D

[Bikewer]

If your sister had the serial number of the laptop, it will be entered into NCIC, a national database of stolen items. Likewise the IPod.

Alas, we take almost-weekly reports on stolen computers at my university, and only rarely can the student provide these numbers.
We also have a "Stop-Tag" service. For 10 bucks, we register the numbers on the machine, and apply a clearly-visible tag (using industrial super-glue) stating same to the outside. Attempts to remove the tag will either break the case, or leave a chemically-etched "stolen" message on same.

Very few students avail themselves of this service. We have had a number of unfortunate victims loose term-papers, semesters-worth of notes, and in one case, a novel; all without any backup.

There are also commercial programs which you can purchase. These "hide" on the hard drive and if the machine is stolen, a call to the service activates the program. If the machine is connected to the Internet, it sends a message to the service as to the IP location so that police can be called.

[tim]

Neat!

[Dog Boots]

In principle this seems a good idea. In the UK loads of stolen stuff is recovered by police, but it never gets back to it's rightful owner, 'cos nobody knows who they are.


You make me think of an insane related fact about the Danish legal system, I heard a few years back from a friend of mine, whom worked a the local police station at the time.

When in Denmark recovered stolen property isn't retrieved from the police station by the rightful owner within a certain time slot, the goods rightfully belong to the THIEF!! :jaw-dropp What the **** were they thinking!?

In practice, though, he said that the staff/officers saw to it that this never happened....but still. :boggled:

[TobiasTheViking]

You make me think of an insane related fact about the Danish legal system, I heard a few years back from a friend of mine, whom worked a the local police station at the time.

When in Denmark recovered stolen property isn't retrieved from the police station by the rightful owner within a certain time slot, the goods rightfully belong to the THIEF!! :jaw-dropp What the **** were they thinking!?

In practice, though, he said that the staff/officers saw to it that this never happened....but still. :boggled:
afaik it is auctioned off.

[Abbyas]

I would not be surprised if the original poster was, in fact, an only child.

[Jorghnassen]

And I thought that the registration procedure for the JREF forums made it harder for this kind of spammer to post...