Twitter helped arrest thief

Twitter helped arrest thief
Updated on

Summary Joshua Kaufman went online and used Twitter and a blog to help track down his stolen laptop.

His efforts were successful and the computer was returned. This is the latest example of people using technology rather than police to track down their stolen items. Just before the laptop was stolen Joshua had installed theft-tracking software. Theft-tracking software sends photos taken by the computers built-in camera of the unauthorized user. The images from that software arrived in his inbox were grainy, low-lit and intimate. Kaufman took the images to police, who did not help him so he published the pictures on Twitter and in a blog titled This Guy Has My MacBook. People who followed Joshua on twitter retweeted it. On the same day that he posted his website on Twitter police arrested 27-year-old cab driver, Muthanna Aldebashi. Police nabbed him when they recognized his face. Aldebashi was being held in an Oakland jail on $20,000 bail.
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