Man uses online sleuthing to track stolen laptop

Joshua Kaufman holds up his MacBook laptop outside of his office in San Francisco, Wednesday. Hoffman's stolen laptop led police to the suspect by using software that allowed him to track the man's location and take photos of him using the computer. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN FRANCISCO — Police in California have returned the stolen laptop of a man who tracked its location using software that also sent him photos of another man using it in bed while shirtless, among other images.

Joshua Kaufman, of Oakland, California, says he retrieved the laptop Wednesday, a day after police arrested the 27-year-old man in the photographs. Muthanna Aldebashi is being held on a charge of suspicion of possessing stolen property.

Kaufman says a burglar broke into his apartment March 21 and stole the laptop. He says he activated theft-tracking software that tracked its location and took screenshots and photographs of its user.

He says he took the data to police but had no luck getting them to help, so he posted the photos online. He says police contacted him after his efforts went viral.

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Tags: Laptop , police , sleuthing , theft , theft-tracking software