Recovery Stories

Laptop Recovered at Santa María, CA | Lost+Found: Case SM-31

When a student went rogue with a school’s MacBook, Prey came in to track him down to the bathroom where he was hiding to use free WiFi!

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– Case Type: College break-in.

– Location: Santa María, California.

– Date Lost: 28/01/2018

– Recovery Time: 1 month.

– Missing Item: MacBook Laptop.

Our User’s Story: The Student Standoff.

A student checked out a mid-2012 MacBook Pro for class and never returned it. The student hid from the police, and often hid in campus bathrooms to use the laptop in one of many spots with Free WiFi.

We wanted to lock the laptop or tip the student that we could track it. Luckily, after a month and right before the school’s Christmas break, we found him in a bathroom stall where he was hiding.

After a brief 7 minute standoff, the student finally returned the laptop!

Final thoughts: I got to use Prey to recover a missing item! As far as I am concerned it was stolen.

When things like this happen, better be ready.

About the author

Nicolas Poggi

Nicolas Poggi is the head of mobile research at Prey, Inc., provider of the open source Prey Anti-Theft software protecting eight million mobile devices. Nic’s work explores technology innovations within the mobile marketplace, and their impact upon security. Nic also serves as Prey’s communications manager, overseeing the company’s brand and content creation. Nic is a technology and contemporary culture journalist and author, and before joining Prey held positions as head of indie coverage at TheGameFanatics, and as FM radio host and interviewer at IndieAir.

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