How to recover a stolen Macbook Pro :(

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Level 1

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How to recover a stolen Macbook Pro :(

Hi guys,

So to cut to the chase, my bag was stolen the other day with a good friend's Macbook Pro inside (double whammy). I'm currently living in Beijing/China and the police are quite useless so I've turned to the net to try and find alternative ways of locating the laptop.

So from what I've learnt, the computer doesn't have any lojacks or programs designed for tracing, it does have a version of Log Me In (which version I do not know, plus I don't know exactly how that program works) and we have the computer's SERIAL number but not its MAC address.

So what are some ways to be able to track this computer down?

Is there any way to find out the MAC address through the serial number?

Any info would be greatly appreciated as we are all desperately trying to get this computer back.

Macbook Pro

Posted on Apr 8, 2008 4:50 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 8, 2008 6:39 AM in response to akiraAUS

Having experienced this in Bangkok with tracking software, the chances of this turning up and tracking it on what you have are mighty slim. Pretty much the onlu way, IMO, is monitoring of second had markets and online sales databases. It does happen (one guy here had a MacBook stolen and the thief advertised it online, so the owner offered to buy it), but the chances are almost zero.

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Answer 2

varjak paw

Level 10

182,662 points

Apr 8, 2008 8:02 AM in response to akiraAUS

Sorry, I'm certainly sympathetic to your loss, but it's going to be impossible to track your computer across the Internet, even if you had the MAC address. Such information just can't be sifted out of the mass of information on the Internet, even if the system would happen to be on line when you went to search. The US FBI with their supercomputers sifting the Internet might be able to spot the MAC address, but locating the system from the IP address would be difficult and a time-consuming proposition in the US. You'd need the cooperation of various ISPs and agencies and that's hard enough here. It's going to be practically impossible in China.

I think you just have to count the MBP as gone and move forward.

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