SLO thieves targeting MacBook laptop computers

December 2, 2012

During a rash of home burglaries near the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, thieves absconded with 15 MacBook Pro laptop computers.

On Friday and Saturday, thieves broke into five residences grabbing the laptops while leaving other valuables behind.

San Luis Obispo police believe this is part of a larger organized crime ring, according to a press release. Officers are asking residents to lock their homes and if they are going away for the holidays, to take their valuables with them.

 


Loading...
2 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

There are several hardware and software anti-theft devices on the market. Some will log-in after being activated and report it’s current location as soon as it is connected to the web. They may even be equipped to take a picture of the thief using the computer if there is a webcam built in. The better ones are not particularly cheap but if you value your laptop (and the data/software on it), they may be worthwhile if you can’t keep it in a secure location at all times.


Having had my laptop stolen a few years ago, I would add to the list of suggestions about keeping your computer from getting swiped; if you are using a home wifi signal and you are going away, turn it off while you are gone. Thieves will look for wifi signals to give them an idea of who is using laptops or other wireless computer devices and will case out the residence to see if anyone is going or leaving or not. When my Mac laptop was stolen, the only thing they took out of my house was the laptop, the power adaptor and the portable case, nothing else in the house was touched, other than the backdoor that they had kicked in to gain access. Unfortunately, if you really want to protect your stuff, you have to look at your situation through the eyes of any potential thief.