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Wireless Networking Hardware Your Rights Online

500 EURO reward for finding car by finding laptop 467

Posted by michael from the real-submissions-unedited dept.
Komawi writes "Greetings, On the night of march 11th my car was stolen (Mercedes Benz, I'm realy fond of that car!), but also my laptop with in it a wireless networkcard with the following MAC address: 00:30:BD:9C:BD:B2 Also a mobile phone was stolen, with IMEI number 351083531088913. If anyone has a way to locate these goods and by this I get back my car, a reward of 500 euros will be given! The goods were taken from Alkmaar, The Netherlands somewhere between 2004-03-11 23:00 and 2004-03-12 07:30. May the force be with you!"
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500 EURO reward for finding car by finding laptop More

500 EURO reward for finding car by finding laptop

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  • Running distributed.net? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Nugget ( 7382 ) * on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:25AM (#8735607) Homepage
    Were you running dnetc [distributed.net] on the laptop? We've recovered a few pieces of stolen computer equipment over the years when the theives plugged the boxes back in to the net and the installed client software sent back completed work.

    Sorry to hear about the theft. I can only imagine how awful it feels.

    • Sorry to hear about being taken in by an April Fool. I can only imagine how awful it feels ;).

    • Re:Running distributed.net? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:44AM (#8735757)
      Wow, you told us your cell's IMEI and your laptop's MAC. How about your car's numberplate?

      • Re:Running distributed.net? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Decado ( 207907 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:05AM (#8735909)
        Next story will be "I tried ringing the stolen phone, did anyone hear a phone ringing?"

        • The Geek Army Unleashed! (Score:5, Funny)

          by BigBlockMopar ( 191202 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @01:30PM (#8738231) Homepage

          with the following MAC address: 00:30:BD:9C:BD:B2 Also a mobile phone was stolen, with IMEI number 351083531088913
          Next story will be "I tried ringing the stolen phone, did anyone hear a phone ringing?"

          What I'm really worried about is the poor thief. After all, he's just unleashed an unemployed geek army, ready to do battle.

          "Cornelius! Look! I saw that MAC address! Hit the gas! Rev up that little Honda Civic! Think of all the anime posters we can buy when we get the reward!"

          "Eugene! I was playing with my scanner and I found that IMEI, so I triangulated its location! We can buy t-shirts on Thinkgeek with the reward money! Go Away Or I Will Replace You With A Very Small Shell Script!" [snorting laughter]

          And pretty soon, there are 2,500 unemployed virgins with masking tape holding together their glasses converging on the thief's doorstep.

          Dude, wherever you are, turn yourself in before it's too late.

  • First post (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:25AM (#8735608)
    ...I got your car too

  • FF (Score:4, Funny)

    by MouseR ( 3264 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:27AM (#8735621) Homepage
    First fool!

    (I actually believed it)
  • Unless I am reading the date format wrong, and the submitter's car was stolen in the future (November), this was three weeks ago. Over here in the States I hear numbers like around 2/3 of stolen cars are eventually recovered, but I'm not privy to stats in The Netherlands. You would think that the longer you wait, the less chance you have of getting your car back, no?

    On top of that, it would hardly take long to sell a laptop off. What a bummer. :(

  • Try slashdot.ru (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:27AM (#8735627)
    Did you try slashdot.ru [slashdot.ru]? I think sooner or later your laptop and your Mercedes-Benz will be seen somewhere around the Red Square.

  • Found. (Score:5, Funny)

    by blitzoid ( 618964 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:27AM (#8735629) Homepage
    Found it.

    Oh, right, you wanted that stuff back. Sorry, I made way more than 500 euros just by parting it out.

  • Oh crap! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:29AM (#8735643) Journal

    For sale:

    Second hand Mercedes, second hand laptop and second hand mobile phone.

    Total price: 501

    • Reminds me of the old joke:
      Man in restaurant: "I lost my wallet with all my money, ID and credit cards in it. If anyone finds it, I'll give then $100."
      Voice from rear of room: "I'll give $150."
      I mean, if you know the car's stolen, you can just go up to it and steal it again yourself. It's not like you'll need anything more than a screwdriver, and the "** current owner **" isn't going to report it stolen.
      • you can just go up to it and steal it again yourself

        that's assuming the asshat that stole the car didnt FUBAR the ignition. my ex-g/f's car was stolen and found a few blocks away, unable to start. (the car was also on the wrong side of the street in a no parking zone, a major street with lots of police rolling by going to/from a nearby station. and it wasnt the police that "found" the car - it was my ex's roommate. damn philly cops)
        • Yah, a friend of mines car was stolen a number of years ago. The car ran out of gas, and was parked next to a police station in a no parking zone. It had several tickets on it before it was towed away. Even then they didn't realize it was stolen until several days later when no one came to pick the car up at the impound lot.

      • Re:Oh crap! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by richie2000 ( 159732 ) <rickard.olsson@gmail.com> on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:35AM (#8736245) Homepage Journal
        I mean, if you know the car's stolen, you can just go up to it and steal it again yourself.

        That's actually illegal in Sweden. There are cases when someone who was trying to sell their car loans it to a prospective buyer for a test drive who then promply drives away with it (which technically isn't "theft" since he was given the keys, it's more or less a misdemeanor amounting to "borrowing with intent" (egenmaktigt forfarande, bork, bork, bork)). The rightful owner tracks the car down, takes it back, is caught by the police and prosecuted for the same crime as the "thief".

        • Re:Oh crap! (Score:5, Informative)

          by Shanep ( 68243 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @11:19AM (#8736709) Homepage
          which technically isn't "theft" since he was given the keys, it's more or less a misdemeanor amounting to "borrowing with intent"

          There was a case in Australia, where a taxi passenger pulled a knife on the driver. The driver said something to the effect of, "here! take the money!", handing the knife wielding passenger his money bag...

          The thief was not charged with theft because the taxi driver told him to take the money!

  • PHP Info (Score:2, Interesting)

    by codefungus ( 463647 )
    You know, today is the day you get the funny picture with a phpinfo(); call.

  • the MAC address is Belkin (Score:5, Informative)

    by REBloomfield ( 550182 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:30AM (#8735653)
    so he might be telling the truth....
  • At first, I wondered what the hell this post was doing on /.
    Then I realized it: a true geek treasure hunt.

    However, I'm not sure 500 Euros is worth the effort. It's already been a few weeks. It's unlikely the car is still in one piece. Maybe someone can get lucky and locate the laptop (or at least the ethernet card). I'd be shocked if the car and laptop were both found together.

  • My Beounty (Score:5, Funny)

    by Devil Ducky ( 48672 ) <slashdot@devilducky.org> on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:30AM (#8735658) Homepage
    Strangely enough my car was stolen too, yeah that's the ticket. So, I'm offering $500US to anyone who retrieves my Mercedes Benz with a wireless capable laptop and a cell phone in it... just send me the car, the laptop, and the phone and I will send you your $500. Thank you for your support during this trying time.

  • Hmm... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sirch ( 82595 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:31AM (#8735659) Homepage
    The thought that it's April Fool's Day immediately leads one to question the validity of any story on Slashdot or any other news outlet. Although I doubt this is an April Fool's Day joke, how do we know that it's real? How do we know that this person isn't actually looking for someone else by searching for their MAC address? OR something more sinister?

    The other thing about April Fool's Day is that noone ever believes me when I say it's my birthday. Which is kind of depressing.

  • Laptop theft in Holland (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:31AM (#8735660)
    That's nothing. I once read an ad in the Via Via that went something like: "Laptop for sale. 500 euros. I don't know anything about it, I'm a cab driver and somebody left it in my car. 06-12345678 etc..."
  • ok, it might be a bit paranoid but there's programs for symbian phones that detect if the sim card changes and can send sms with the current gsm cell id(and number of the new sim) to pre-set gsm phone.

    as to the mac address, isn't that changeable? though, you could still strike lucky.

    however I'm pretty sure your car is on it's way to eastern europe, sorry.

  • You poor poor man (Score:5, Funny)

    by Em Emalb ( 452530 ) * <ememalb AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:34AM (#8735678) Homepage Journal
    I so sorry about your loss.

    I cannot help with your laptop theft, but oh Holy Day! I have been the pleasure of telling you that there is most definitely good news for you today sir!

    I am Abdul Shakalakabangbang, from New Timur. Our Prime Minister, may his soul flatulate freely in heaven, was tragically killed in a mushroom stuffing contest. Since I his trusted most aide, he leave me lots of money. Due to political unrest, and a bad case of hemorroids, I am needing to remove this money from the country. This is where you can help me, my new friend.

    If you feel most strongly you can help this poor man, please contact me and let us know.

    thanks,

    Dr Shakalakadangdang

  • Foolerisms (Score:5, Insightful)

    by meta-monkey ( 321000 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:34AM (#8735681) Journal
    I think this is a bit of a twist on the April Foolery. Notice the department for this article: "real-submissions-unedited dept." I'm sure people submit inane "stories" like this all the time, and they're usually promptly deleted. I think somebody actually did submit this story in all sincerity, and the joke is that /. actually published it...
  • Well it will be tricky to find a laptop with just the Mac address unless they connect to my computer. But when I get a little extra time I am going to write a script on my laptop that checks the IP address of my laptop and if it is different then it will email me the new address and Ill probably hide it in the crontab where most crooks cant find it.

    So if my laptop gets stolen I can just SSH to my laptop and check out the new data and see if I can find the new physical address. Or at least go thew the ISP
    • Wouldn't a dyndns account be easier?

    • Re:Hmm that gives me an Idea. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by HeghmoH ( 13204 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:08AM (#8735943) Homepage Journal
      I have a cron job that runs every few hours and grabs a web page from my web server. This is already a good start, because my logs will show the IP that grabbed the page, and nothing else even knows the page exists. But I went one better, and wrote a small program to parse the page for commands. So for now, the page is blank, and nothing happens. If I should need to, I can change the contents of the page to have my computer e-mail me the output of 'ifconfig' (which would also give me juicy headers to look through), open an ssh connection to my web server with a tunnel allowing me to connect back the other way, or just run an arbitrary command on the shell. I have no idea how useful it might be, but it was a fun little project.
      • this is not an April fools joke...... but i'm on dialup so i can't go find the orig stories.

        there was a story in the last year or so on MacSlash and other mac sites about a guy who's sister's iMac was stolenf rom her apartment. being the nerdier of the siblings he had installed (i think) Timbucktoo (sp?) on her machine. it's like Apple's remote desktop, before ARD existed. he just waited till the thief signed on again and till it looked like they left the machine idle and went in to change the isp dialup

  • License plate? (Score:5, Funny)

    by martingunnarsson ( 590268 ) * <martin&snarl-up,com> on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:35AM (#8735688) Homepage
    You'd think the license plate number would be a better clue than the MAC address and IMEI code of the electronics, but what the hell, this is slashdot!

    • Re:License plate? (Score:3, Informative)

      by crashnbur ( 127738 )
      No way. This guy is making sense, and he knows exactly which authorities he's dealing with.

      You give license plate numbers to police authorities, and you give MAC addresses and IMEI codes to h4ck3r5 0f 7h3 w0r|d.
  • OK, you locate the goods.....but to claim your reward there are some "unforseen expenses"........

  • I think I found it (Score:5, Funny)

    by jayayeem ( 247877 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:38AM (#8735710)
    Is this your Mercedes [wreckedexotics.com]
  • I do.

    Know the old adage, 'better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are a fool than open it and prove them right'? I think I'll play it safe and choose to lose 'em today.

  • Info on the mobile phone. (Score:5, Informative)

    by shakey_deal ( 602291 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:39AM (#8735726)
    IMEI number analysis results

    Manufacturer Siemens
    Model type S55 S30880-S5720
    Reference S30880-S5720
    Production date N/A
    Phone version N/A
    Phone GSM phase GSM Phase 2 or higher

    IMEI number break-down

    Type Approval / Allocation Code (TAC) 351083
    Final Assembly Code (FAC) 53
    Serial Number (SNR) 108891
    Check Digit (CD) 3
    Full IMEI presentation 351083-53-108891-3

  • That's odd (Score:2, Funny)

    by SEWilco ( 27983 )
    Huh?
    Why is someone posting my MAC address?
  • How about a small service that comes on after power up to run a traceroute back to a website and then report that route... granted, a *smart* thief would pull off any docs (without net connection), and then wipe the harddrive (or just wipe the drive) before using it.

  • Come on (Score:4, Funny)

    by krray ( 605395 ) * on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:43AM (#8735752)
    I thought this was Slashdot. Oh well--

    If anyone can help me find my car keys (mis-placed them, probably not stolen as the car *is* in the driveway) ... and you live nearby I'll be happy to give you a ride down to the local coffee shop.

    Now, where did I put those keys?

  • may be joke but.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by westcourt_monk ( 516239 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @09:44AM (#8735758) Homepage Journal
    How about a site that publishes MAC addresses of stolen laptops? Hmmm? Include 802.11 MAC as well and those centrino chips become useful ;) Migh tbe a nice feature on /.

    • Re:may be joke but.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Albanach ( 527650 )
      The IMEI number could be useful - here in the UK the mobile phone networks will block it to at least make the phone pretty much worthless.

      As for the MAC address...

      ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55

      should pretty much take care of it should they start to be used for tracking stolen laptops.

  • The ghost of Stephen King.
  • He is Dutch and he drives a CAR? There are no cars in the Netherlands. Now, if he had said his bicycle was stolen I wouldn't have jumped on this quite so quickly... :-)
  • I did this, once after my house was burglared, and I got the thieves on the other end. They'd stolen my PC, phone, car, and other stuff. They basically laughed and told me to fuck off and die. I called the phone company and asked them to locate the GSM. They told me to fuck off and die. So when the cops came I gave them the information and said "you can probably find the buggers by driving to the cell location and dialing the number," and they told me to fuck off and die (but nicely, after making me sign a long statement).

    Basically the merc is already in Eastern Europe, the PC has been sold in a bar somewhere, and the phone has been rechipped.

    Your only hope is to bump up the insurance claim. Surely you also left EUR10,000 in cash under the seat? And your gold Rolex?!

    • Re:Did you try calling your own GSM? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fuzzybunny ( 112938 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:03AM (#8735879) Homepage Journal
      Bummer, you're probably right about the Merc, and I'm sorry to hear about how the burglars/phone co./cops treated you.

      However, a friend's GSM phone was stolen in Italy (out of her car, along with a lot of other stuff.) TIM [www.tim.it] helped them find it after they called the phone. The police located a bunch of Romanian illegals living in an apartment in Milan, showed up with a couple of burly cops, got most of the goods back, and beat the living unholy shit out of the guys, several times, threw them in a cell for a couple of days and deported them, with a very clear message that if they ever ran into them again in Italy, they'd wish they'd never laid eyes on the country.

      So there is always the off chance...

  • Drivewarring (Score:3, Funny)

    by nmg196 ( 184961 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:01AM (#8735866)
    Drivewarring - like wardriving, but backwards.

    Put a good wireless access point in your car with the same SSID/WEP key that you were using before it was stolen, then drive around and see if you can get your stolen laptop to connect to it.

    Better still - get everyone else to do it too.

    I'm there must be a tool called stumblenetter that could do this...

  • Mobile phone details (Score:3, Informative)

    by Some Bitch ( 645438 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:04AM (#8735898)
    That phone [numberingplans.com] would be a Siemens S55 [siemens-mobile.com] then.

  • Tips and Tricks to Avoid Laptop Thefts (Score:5, Informative)

    by wehe ( 135130 ) <<gro.libomxut> <ta> <ehew>> on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:05AM (#8735907) Homepage Journal
    Here are some tips and tricks for Theft and Loss Protection for Linux Laptops and Notebooks [tuxmobil.org]. Some of these tricks are useful for other operating systems, too.

  • Is there a way to scan for MACs ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by clarkie.mg ( 216696 ) <mgofwd+Slashdot&gmail,com> on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:16AM (#8736041) Homepage Journal
    This story brings the question : Is there a way to scan (the internet) for MACs addresses like scanning ip's. I mean is there a software that does it ?

  • Is this a joke? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by /ASCII ( 86998 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @10:16AM (#8736042) Homepage
    I dont want to sound like a jackass, but I really dont understand if this is supposed to be an Aprils fool joke or not.

    A guy tells us he lost his laptop, cellphone and car and asks if the slashdot community has seen any of them. But he desn't leave any contact information. And he doesnt tell us the model of the laptop, the phone OR of the car. What does he expect, that everyone on slashdot update their firewall rules to log the IP and MAC adress of every computer that connects to us, and try to locate his computer for him? And it's filed under "Your rights online". What does this have to do with DeCSS?

    But if this is a joke, I really dont get it. It's just not funny.

  • Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Experiment 626 ( 698257 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @01:31PM (#8738245)

    It's situations like this guy's that make me wish I had a mini-PCI GPS card inside my laptop, imagine the possibilities. Once an hour, it could report its exact coordinates to a hidden log on your web server.

    Of course, just checking in periodically has its benefits, even without extra hardware. If the laptop sees some "stolen" flag on the server has been set, it turns on keylogging and sends you all the thief's keystrokes. The laptop could also turn on its microphone (yes, they have built in ones) and send a realtime audio stream of everything being said around it.

  • Heh... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Fweeky ( 41046 ) on Thursday April 01, 2004 @02:21PM (#8739112) Homepage
    My Olympus C-750UZ digital camera and 384MB of xD cards were stolen from a friend's car outside some Manchester Uni building September last year. On said cards were pictures from one of the best weekends of my life (needless to say, I was feeling a ill at the time, hence little thought was put on the camera at the time). It was stolen with a load of other stuff too (clothes, 128M thumbdrive, batteries, charger, lens adaptor and filters..)

    Camera has serial number A0050332140929A, but frankly I'd be happy just to get the pictures, or the head of the guy who took it and most likely threw most of it in a bin somewhere.

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