Tech guy tracks stolen laptops by triggering webcam
A tenacious technophile helped Boston police recover his two stolen laptops by remotely activating one notebook’s webcam and spying on the Stoughton family who was using it.
But Waltham entrepreneur Josh Bob, 30, didn’t stop there: He recorded the surveillance videos and posted them on his blog.
“It was frustrating, no question, but to be honest, I was mostly angry. They had taken my multihundred-dollar laptop and given it to an 8-year-old to watch wrestling videos and Scooby Doo on YouTube,” Bob said.
Seasoned cops were so impressed by Bob’s amateur gumshoe home run that they’ve invited him to come speak to officers.
“We are interested in how he went about tracking this information,” Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said.
Driscoll confirmed investigators seized the two laptops Tuesday from the home of a taxi driver – one week after they were stolen from Bob’s Toyota Camry near Fenway Park . She said the cabbie told detectives the laptops were given to him by a fare in lieu of cash.
When police asked for the computers, Driscoll said, “The (driver) very willingly said, ‘Oh yes, right here.’ ”
Because of insufficient evidence, criminal charges are not expected to be brought. However, “The investigation is ongoing,” she said.
Bob is founder of Textaraunt – a new online time-saving service that enables restaurants to alert customers by cell phone text when their table is ready, without requiring them to show up, wait around and clog their entrances.
Because he often works from the road, Bob had hooked up his Hewlitt-Packard laptop and home computer to communicate with each other and share information. That’s what enabled Bob to switch on the stolen laptop’s webcam from his house.
Bob took Big Brother to a whole new level, but noted, “If (the family) had known what they were doing, they actually could have accessed my home computer from the laptop.”
He said it appeared the laptop was first used Friday. He subsequently discovered Internet surfing for “world’s strongest dog” and “sex.” But it was the search for an information-laden Facebook page of a teenage girl that Bob said enabled police to obtain an address for her and locate his computers.
“I didn’t take crimefighting into my own hands,” Bob said, “I just helped the police research something they wouldn’t have been able to research themselves.”