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You're nicked: laptop theft round-up reaches new extremes

~ Absolute Software reveals extreme attempts at laptop theft from UK criminals ~

August 20, 2009

From Kent to New Delhi…via Africa – Absolute® Software Corporation (“Absolute”), the leading provider of firmware-based, patented, computer theft recovery, data protection and IT asset management solutions, has released the annual round-up of its most extreme laptop theft recoveries over the last 12 months. These cases prove just how far criminals will go to steal laptops and avoid getting caught.

Computrace® by Absolute Software tracks stolen laptops – and enables IT managers to remotely delete data when laptops go astray. In addition, the company’s Theft Recovery Team works with law enforcement agencies to recover stolen laptops and return them to their owners.

Top five Absolute Software recovery stories in the past year:

1 – Back to school: A laptop stolen from The Laleham Gap School in Kent was recovered in Tohana, India. Distance from point of theft: over 4,000 miles!

2 – Everybody needs good neighbours: In late 2008, a student house separated into several flats in Birmingham was burgled. A stolen laptop was recovered using Absolute’s asset tracking capabilities – from a flat on the top floor of the same building.

3 – Terminally lost? One US traveller in Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Five left his laptop with his wife in the waiting area. His wife was distracted, and the laptop was stolen in seconds in a practiced move from a pair of professional thieves. Absolute Software tracked the laptop down in central London and returned it to its owner in the US – who was pleasantly surprised to find his computer had made its own way home.

4 – Little shop of steals: Last summer a laptop was stolen during a burglary in Birmingham. It was traced to a shop in the south of the city. A warrant was executed on the mobile phone store – the laptop was recovered along with 32 other stolen laptops and over 100 stolen mobile handsets.

5 - Motoring down the highway to recover: A laptop was stolen in a car jacking in New Delhi, India. Thieves distracted the car driver bv alerting him to a flat tyre. When the driver got out to look, the thieves stole the laptop from inside the car. The device was tracked to Chennai, Southern India – some 1,000 miles across the sub-continent from its owner.

Executive quote

“The past year has witnessed some amazing recoveries. Some thieves cross continents to cover their tracks, while others are more confident – sometimes only venturing as far away as the apartment upstairs,” said Derek Skinner, theft recovery services manager at Absolute.

“Laptop theft is becoming increasingly extreme as criminals respond to advances in tracking technology and try to hide from it. The key is to make sure the thieves fail – which is only possible if we make use of the technology already embedded in laptops to track them down and recover the machine and/or the data.”

About the company

About Absolute Software
Absolute Software Corporation is the leader in computer theft recovery, data protection and Secure Asset Tracking® solutions. Absolute Software provides organizations and consumers with solutions in the areas of regulatory compliance, data protection and theft recovery. The Company's Computrace software is embedded in the firmware of computers by global leaders, including ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, Gammatech, Gateway, General Dynamics Itronix, HP, Lenovo, Motion, Panasonic, and Toshiba, and the Company has reselling partnerships with these OEMs and others, including Apple. For more information about Absolute Software and Computrace, visit www.absolute.com and blog.absolute.com .

Contact details

For more information, please contact:

Lisa Gillingham or Ellen Spenceley at LEWIS PR
absoluteuk@lewispr.com, 0117 315 8584

Supporting materials

We also have a case study available about how a British holiday maker helped police in the Netherlands fight crime, when her laptop was stolen from her bungalow in Center Parcs. Almost £1,700 worth of possessions were stolen, including her new £350 laptop which contained recent photos from the holiday and previous occasions, amongst other things.

Liz immediately reported this to the local police and informed them that the laptop had security software installed that would track the laptop’s whereabouts – LoJack for laptops by Absolute Software. The thieves using the laptop were then successfully located, the laptop and a mobile phone were returned, and the criminals were charged for another 13 burglaries.

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