Find my mac after robbery

Question

Find my mac after robbery

I use to have a MacBook Pro Retina but it was stolen on 30 seconds from my car in a gas station by a very quick thiefts on 2012-12-29 22:30:00 -6GMT in Guatemala City at this location https://maps.google.com/maps?q=14.593509,+-90.515515&z=19

I immediately activated "fin my mac" and send the instruction to turn on the alarm an block the mac, but it doesn't appear.

I have several questions:

What if the robbers turn on the computer without Wi-Fi and then disable Find My Mac?
What if they boot the Mac from a USB installation and erase everything?
Is there any way they can escape from Find My Mac?
I have reported my Mac as stolen to all the Apple distributors I know in the country sharing my serial number C0*******KQ4, the thiefts know the serial for sure so I found no issue on sharing this serial number, it is bad to share it?

Thanks for your help, all my work from 15 years was in the backpack where the computer was within two 3TB hard drives, this MacBook Pro Retina is very unusual on stores here because it is a custom configuration of 16GB memory, I hope some day appear.

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Dec 7, 2012 4:47 PM

Reply

Answer 1

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Dec 7, 2012 6:01 PM in response to RodrigoPoloDOTcom

I have reported my Mac as stolen to all the Apple distributors

Did you also report or file a police report? Reporting a lost or stolen Mac Product

The following should help you somewhat - How to use Find My Mac in iCloud

You should post in the iCloud forum area if the article is of no help.

Never post your serial numbers on a public message. I have asked a Host to remove.

Please correct your system information. iCloud is not compatible with Snow Leopard.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 9, 2012 9:59 PM in response to CMCSK

thanks for nothing!

Reply

Answer 3

LousyFool

Level 4

2,668 points

Dec 9, 2012 10:16 PM in response to RodrigoPoloDOTcom

RodrigoPoloDOTcom wrote:

thanks for nothing!

?????!!!!!!

One more try to help, though I wonder if it'll be appreciated...

Is your (admin) user account password protected, or did you give the thief easy access? If the latter, wave your data, and most likely also your Mac bye-bye.

Do you have a backup? If not, wave your data bye-bye.

No one else but yourself to blame, then.

The rest depends on how clever the thief is, and what the "Apple distributors" are doing, and when, if any. Especially if you prefer to NOT follow CMCSK's link...

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 9, 2012 10:24 PM in response to LousyFool

I make very clear questions to know how "Find My Mac" works to see what else can I do to recover my mac, I am very versed on technology and I know about backups, admin passwords and everything but this is NOT the point, I'm trying to know all about "find my mac".

I do reported the mac as stolen online like 5 minutes after the robbery and I do reported to the local police, I do know how (from a user perspective) to enable and use iCloud and "find my phone/mac", again, that is not the point of my very clear questions that were completly ignored.

I feel very sad to see that Apple offers live chat for selling but not for giving support, the usual way to do business.

Reply

Answer 5

LousyFool

Level 4

2,668 points

Dec 9, 2012 10:27 PM in response to RodrigoPoloDOTcom

Talk with your local Apple guys. We're only users here like you.

Good luck and bye.

Reply

Answer 6

Dec 9, 2012 10:55 PM in response to LousyFool

Exactly, that's what is sad about all this issue, we are alone on our search for answers, and the local support guys know way less than I do just as it is with the live support chat on Apple, quite dissapointing.

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 10, 2012 7:03 AM in response to RodrigoPoloDOTcom

RodrigoPoloDOTcom wrote:

Exactly, that's what is sad about all this issue, we are alone on our search for answers, and the local support guys know way less than I do just as it is with the live support chat on Apple, quite dissapointing.

If you know so much why did you post here with a question? You were answered as best as could be by users. You then responded with ingratitude. Just a friendly suggestion for the future. When you ask for assistance in a user-to-user forum, you should at least acknowledge that the answers you receive are legitimate attempts to help, even if you do not perceive the answers to be helpful.

Good luck with finding your computer.

Reply

Answer 8

Dec 10, 2012 11:06 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Let me explain, I don't know why is everyone reacting so emotional and less objective, I need answers and I’m running out of time, any help is very very appreciated, but I'm NOT getting any kind of help, instead I'm getting answers to questions I didn’t make that are completely useless and a waste of time for everyone here.

I know enough, if it is online on any support forum or any guide or knowledge base I know it or I find it, I don’t post just for the sake of it, I post questions here when I have any doubt or missing information, that’s why I make 4 clear questions, none of them where answered so far.

What I get?

A question if I reported to the police, I do but that’s not the main issue of the discussion.

Links to the information I have already read, that is not useful for me.

A recommendation to “not post the serial number” that the thefts already have, I don’t know if this is useful or not because I get no information explaining why is bad to share a serial number.

A request to correct my system info, there is something called common sense; I have a brand new MacBook Pro Retina Display, tell me, do you think that it could have OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion?

Again, I’m not being unthankful, I just not receiving any help and I is like calling 911 to ask for help and assistance and getting just emotional support, I need help on this issue, I need clear and useful information about the clear questions I made, any real help will be very well appreciated but please, if you are committed to help here your follow friends and users of any Apple product, understand that we need real and useful advice and understand that some people are not versed on people skills and just need help, if you are committed to help just do so.

Thanks a lot!

Reply

Answer 9

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Dec 10, 2012 12:15 PM in response to RodrigoPoloDOTcom

Links to the information I have already read, that is not useful for me.

You did not mention this in your original post. Otherwise, I would not have posted the links. As far as I know, none of the users here are mind readers.

A recommendation to “not post the serial number” that the thefts already have, I don’t know if this is useful or not because I get no information explaining why is bad to share a serial number.

Due to security reason, it is not wise to post serial numbers or any other personal information on a public message board.

A request to correct my system info, there is something called common sense; I have a brand new MacBook Pro Retina Display, tell me, do you think that it could have OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion?

Correct profile information will proved possible correct troubleshooting suggestions and solutions.

I have a brand new MacBook Pro Retina Display

Your stolen Mac is still under warranty. Call Apple Care.

You have 90 days of FREE phone tech support.

You still have the standard one year Apple warranty.

Take FULL advantage of your warranty. Posting on a message board should be done as a last resort and if you are out of warranty or Apple Care has expired.

Reply

Answer 10

cbs20

Level 4

2,796 points

Dec 10, 2012 12:41 PM in response to RodrigoPoloDOTcom

RodrigoPoloDOTcom wrote:

What if the robbers turn on the computer without Wi-Fi and then disable Find My Mac?

What if they boot the Mac from a USB installation and erase everything?

Is there any way they can escape from Find My Mac?

I have reported my Mac as stolen to all the Apple distributors I know in the country sharing my serial number C0*******KQ4, the thiefts know the serial for sure so I found no issue on sharing this serial number, it is bad to share it?

1. This depends if you have a password set on your admin account. If you don't then yes a thief could easily turn off find my mac after turning off the wifi. If you do have a password then this will be much more difficult because the thief will have to crack your password first.

2. If they do this then you are screwed because Find my Mac won't work.

3. Yes, if they turn off wifi and never turn wifi on again, if they erase the HD and reinstall a clean OS, if they turn off Find my Mac in your settings.

4. Yes it is bad to give out your serial number, but I do not know why exactly, CMCSK seems to know more about that topic.

Reply

Answer 11

Dec 11, 2012 3:07 AM in response to cbs20

@cbs20 Thanks a lot for your answers, I did set a password, here thiefts are quite smart and I'm sure they already erase the entire hard drive, just a last question...

What if they try to register the mac again or try to enable Find My Mac in the new OS?

Reply