# Thieves about - take some precautions



## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Thought we escaped the buggers this year....
Client in the north end got hit over the weekend and had decent security in place - lost two MacPros.

Offsite backup - for sure

( security cables don't help BTW for pros )

New Year Resolution review your theft /data loss security

Portables....keep your eye on them all the time

Happy 2011


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

The security locks on the Pros only stop people from opening the door of the machine (to that end, a padlock would be better). If you want to stop it from being stolen, then you need a good sized chain going through the feet.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

I doubt that would stop someone that came prepared to break into a building.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

Another vote for off-site back-ups.

As much as I'd like to think that dogs wold prove a deterrent to even determined thieves, this does not seem to be the case.

My friend has a mid-size dog (50 lbs), and his place was broken into. 
Friend found his dog under a chair, bleeding from the wounds inflicted when the thieves' beat the dog with a steel bar. (Bloody weapon left on site. Dog recovered fine.)

My dogs do seem to be noisy alarms, though, and probably prevent the casual sneak-and-snatch.
/


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Chain might work - bolts to floor best.

They even had that plastic security film in the doors and windows.

Take critical gear home on long holidays


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## pcronin (Feb 20, 2005)

The only true way to prevent theft is to not have anything to steal


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

Too bad we stopped booby trapping places 3000 years ago!


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## Lee_Roy (Sep 1, 2007)

Yah my work had some pretty terrible security, they have now boosted it up now. 

Came in one morning and found a G5 Tower sitting on the floor with the power cord wrapped up. The thief must have been scared away. He wasn't to smart of a thief cause he went for the G5 and not the new Mac Pros that were sitting there. 

Cause of that incident I was able to make some changes on how we manage files. All the designers used to keep all work locally on each workstation (5 of them) with no backup what-so-ever. Now everything is on a Drobo connected (via Firewire 800) to a Dual 1.8 G5 running Leopard Server. Every lunch hour and evening it backs up to another drive via Time Machine and then every night it does an offsite backup.


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## hayesk (Mar 5, 2000)

MacDoc said:


> Chain might work - bolts to floor best.


Chains are trivial to get through, unfortunately.


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## Guest (Jan 4, 2011)

Adrian. said:


> Too bad we stopped booby trapping places 3000 years ago!


We did? Oops. I must have missed that memo


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## K2ACP (Sep 11, 2010)

I live in an apartment and one of the residents on the 10th floor got their PowerMac G5 and MacBook Pro stolen about a month ago, I don't know how you can steal such a large machine without alerting the residents, or let alone break into an apartment on the 10th floor, but something tells me those are some crafty theeves with a few tricks up their sleeve, and that makes me slightly concerned/paranoid. Heck the person(s) that broke into that apartment might have also been the ones that broke into the client's home and stolen his Mac Pros. (I doubt it though). Police report has been filed immediately after the incident.


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## Lichen Software (Jul 23, 2004)

K2ACP said:


> I live in an apartment and one of the residents on the 10th floor got their PowerMac G5 and MacBook Pro stolen about a month ago, I don't know how you can steal such a large machine without alerting the residents, or let alone break into an apartment on the 10th floor....


Get some random workman's coverall with a mover's logo. They could carry anything out of the building and no one would question them. They probably would not be questioned while picking the lock either. They would just have to keep muttering something about "Damn clients and their spare keys".


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

K2ACP said:


> I live in an apartment and one of the residents on the 10th floor got their PowerMac G5 and MacBook Pro stolen about a month ago, I don't know how you can steal such a large machine without alerting the residents, or let alone break into an apartment on the 10th floor, but something tells me those are some crafty theeves with a few tricks up their sleeve, and that makes me slightly concerned/paranoid. Heck the person(s) that broke into that apartment might have also been the ones that broke into the client's home and stolen his Mac Pros. (I doubt it though). Police report has been filed immediately after the incident.


The thieves were people who had been in that apartment before. How else would they know to go to the tenth floor and that specific apartment.


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## MacMagicianJunior (Nov 28, 2010)

Adrian. said:


> The thieves were people who had been in that apartment before. How else would they know to go to the tenth floor and that specific apartment.


Makes sense to me, they'd be recognizable as 'belonging there' too... but man, a G5 weighs upwards of 50lbs... that's a gutsy theft.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

If I saw someone walk out with something, I am not going to accuse them of stealing no matter what they are carrying out.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

.


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## Snowy (Dec 13, 2008)

The guy that did the B & E on our house a couple of years ago was wearing coveralls and carrying a tool box.
Our neighbor saw him in our back yard and said he looked like he belonged. He wasn't looking around, he was very cool and calm and that is why our neighbor didn't suspect anything. 
He stole $15k worth of our belongings in a duffle bag and also took our big screen TV.
The police did catch him, eventually from a tip. They wouldn't elaborate further on this info.


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## grits (Jan 9, 2011)

*Are Macs hard to recover?*

I purchased my Grandson a Mac Pro for Graduation. Salesman had me get that "Me" tracking program. We couldn't download because it's just for the tablet. That was our first rip off. Last week a few guys followed him from college and robbed him at gunpoint. He recognized one guy from his class. They said report it and they'd kill him.
Just for reference, can you still download that program "Locate PC?" I say count the losses and do without a computer. He says why let them get away with it.


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