I am outraged! I am literally angry with rage!
For starters, burglars and thieves are disgustingly cowardly. No, my xbox is not worth a human life... normally. But I wouldn't snatch an intruder's life for the xbox, I would do it to teach him a lesson that messing with other people lives is wrong. Okay, so I wouldn't teach HIM a lesson, but it would definitely send a message to his friends, family, and "co-workers".
But what REALLY fills my rage meter is johnsmith1's comments. YES, the thief and the stolen goods owner--and they may be the same person--and all their friends, family, and co-workers know where the article author lives. They know what else he's got in the apartment. They definitively know about the long showers. And they know that they can come back, steal EVERYTHING, and get away with it. The police apparently won't even look for them.
Even WORSE, they know how the author messed with them, with their songs, pictures, etc. Is there a late-night beat-down in the author's future? Will the author be taking precautions? Will they be enough, or will he have to move to be somewhat safe again?
HE was robbed. He was ignored and patronized. He is in more danger than before. He was the victim and is still being victimized, while degenerate people play his Wii, discuss revenge, and laugh at him and the impotency of the system.
I am seeing red.
There is one thought that makes me strangely calm. The author--and hopefully some other helpful people in his area--seem to be far more intelligent than the perpetrators. And they know where the perps live. They know their schedule somewhat. They know first-hand the weak points and loopholes of the system, as well as the abilities and motivation level of the local police.
The opportunity to wreck havok, to descend upon these perps' lives and show them the true meaning of being a victim, to make them feel--truly feel--what their actions do to people is one that should not be passed. Evil wins when good does nothing.
Anyway, I really hope the author is taking precautions. That, and I hope he gets his other stuff back.
How I Defeated Adoraburglar
When a thief stole my laptop, I was determined to get it back. Oh yeah, and seek a little electronic revenge along the way.
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I take really long showers, the kind of shower that single-handedly depletes my hot-water heater. I know it's terribly selfish, from an environmental standpoint, but a shower for me is more than a perfunctory morning ritual. The shower is my think tank. I puzzle through my problems and have colossal breakthroughs. I write rough drafts of stories in my head, and give stirring vocal performances that the world will sadly never hear. But a little under two months ago, it's where I got my calling to become a cyberdetective.
On a recent Saturday morning, during a shower, I heard a loud bang, which I assumed came from the neighbors who had recently moved in upstairs. But when I got out of the shower and went into my living room, my front door was open. Splinters of the doorframe were on the floor, and half of a boot print was visible just above the lock. Then I looked around inside. My PlayStation 3 and Wii were gone, along with my iPod and my laptop. My apartment had been burglarized, in broad daylight, with me inside, totally oblivious.
Apart from taking my statement and filing the report, there wasn't a whole lot the police could do. The reason this type of crime is committed is that the risk of getting caught is not nearly as high as it should be. Normally, this would have been the point at which I moved through the stages of grief, replaced my stuff and went on with my life.
But it came to me, in the shower of course, that I'd installed a remote-access program on my stolen laptop called LogMeIn. It allows users to access home computers from anywhere over a secure Internet connection. Once connected, users can transfer files between computers, print files from the remote computer to a local printer, even listen to music housed on the remote computer on local speakers. It's even possible to view and control the remote computer's desktop, as though you were sitting right in front of it. When I had my laptop, the program was merely a cute application that made my life a little easier. But after some goon swiped it, it became a digital bloodhound. Luckily, I had a desktop and an additional laptop to keep on eye on things. As long as the thief logged onto the Internet from my stolen computer, I could get the IP address he was accessing from, which might help me lead the police to my machine.
But that was all in theory. In order for any of that to work, the laptop's hard drive would have to remain intact. If the thief reformatted the drive, the program would disappear along with it. If the burglar did log on to the Net with it, he would have to do it from his house. If he only accessed it from Wi-Fi hotspots, his identity would be nearly impossible to track. And without solid information, a name or an address, there wouldn't be much to act on. But LogMeIn was my only hope, so I had to give it a shot.
For the days and weeks that followed, I signed in to see if my stolen laptop was connected to the Internet. To call the rate at which I did this obsessive doesn't accurately paint the picture. My first hit came less than 24 hours after the burglary took place. Already, the workstation name had been changed to his first name. I was livid. Every day or every other day, he would log in again and I'd collect a new IP address that I'd give to the detective assigned to my case.
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