Stolen Mac helps nab burglary suspects

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Stolen Mac helps nab burglary suspects
Posted by Steven Musil

A remote desktop access feature found in some Macintoshes is being 
credited with leading police to two suspects in the burglary of an 
apartment in New York.

In addition to flat-screen TVs, iPods, and DVDs, the thieves made off 
with two laptop computers, one of which belonged to Kait Duplaga, an 
Apple store employee, according to a report in the New York Times on 
Saturday. While police in White Plains, N.Y., were coming up empty with 
their investigation, Duplaga learned that her computer was being used on 
the Internet and turned on the Back to My Mac feature installed on her 
Mac from another Mac, according to the report.

The feature allowed Duplaga to see immediately how the computer was 
being used at the time, as well as operate it remotely. Recalling that 
she had a camera installed on the computer, the fast-thinking Duplaga 
snapped images of one of the burglary suspects before he realized what 
was happening, according to the Times. Duplaga showed the image to 
friends who recognized the suspect as someone who attended a party at 
the apartment.

The photo lead police to arrest two suspects on Wednesday and recover 
nearly all the stolen property.

"It doesn't get much better than their bringing us a picture of the guy 
actually using the stolen property," Daniel Jackson, the deputy 
commissioner of public safety in White Plains, told the newspaper. "It 
certainly made our job easier."

The Back to My Mac feature runs on Leopard-based Macintoshes and 
requires a $99 subscription to the .Mac online service.
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