# stolen macbook



## kertesd (Apr 11, 2007)

If i take a stolen macbook to the apple store, do they check to see if its stolen? im buying a macbook that could be stolen. the seller says its not. i know i should buy it if its stolen but the price is too right. Anywayz what risk and i taking by buying this laptop beejacon beejacon beejacon


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## DoNotPokeTheScreen (Jun 9, 2005)

How old are you?

Basically, you're paying the thief to steal the MacBook for you. It's no different than stealing it yourself. It's illegal and immoral.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

If you have every reason to suspect it's stolen, do not buy it - it's against the law. And yes, if the previous owner has flagged its Serial Number as stolen, it will show up at every Apple Store and AASP that attempts to perform a repair on it, as its history is clearly marked - and quite possibly marked as stolen.


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

stolen property is taken from the possessor without compensation and possibly face charges for accepting stolen property


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

I hope you get banned from here. Your lack of moral value does not belong in ehMac. You should be ashamed of yourself.

At my school a girl witnessed her laptop being stolen, ran after the guy stealing it, tried to grab it back and got knocked down the stairs hitting her head at the landing.

I have ZERO tolerance about this matter.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## winwintoo (Nov 9, 2004)

kertesd said:


> If i take a stolen macbook to the apple store, do they check to see if its stolen? im buying a macbook that could be stolen. the seller says its not. i know i should buy it if its stolen but the price is too right. Anywayz what risk and i taking by buying this laptop beejacon beejacon beejacon


Did you think we wouldn't check on other threads you've posted on? Nice company you keep. This is the second time this week that you've asked us about buying a laptop that's possibly stolen.

The cops might not respond as you would like when your friend's car is broken into, but I can assure you that if they find out you have that laptop and it's stolen, they will be at your door AND they will take it from you and you won't get your money back. Also, they'll be checking to find out where you've been hanging out on line - matter of fact, they have probably already spotted your posts - and since you know the laptop is stolen (you told us all about it) you are a criminal too.

Cops are not stupid. Whoever owns the laptop has reported it stolen and what do you think the cops are going to do to find it? Drive around and see if it's on a park bench somewhere? No, they're going to hop onto the internet and check out places where computers are bought and sold and talked about. 

They read this forum, just to keep up with what's going on. Mac laptops are pretty inviting for would be thieves so the cops come here and read as much as they can about them so they can speak knowledgeably when talking to a victim. And they read the classifieds too just in case a stolen laptop shows up on there. eBay and Craig's list the same.

And just in case you don't believe me, your information has already been tracked and people here know who you are and know how to find you. The cops won't be far behind.

Smarten up.

Margaret


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

kertesd said:


> Anywayz what risk and i taking by buying this laptop


Aside from the already mentioned reasons why this would be a stupid thing to do: You want a risk? Here's one. 

You already know or suspect the seller is a thief. Obviously they are not gonna take a cheque for the unit. So what's stopping them from simply ripping you off and never delivering? or rolling you for the cash when you show up to pick up the machine?


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

*We interrupt this thread...*

While I don't want to take attention away from us dealing with kertesd's crisis of conscience, I'd just like a brief thread hijack.

I clicked over to the link he provided to Futureshop and hit the customer reviews. What I found was interesting and then quickly perused the user reviews of almost all Apple _computer_ products available. Man, almost EVERY review was from a "switcher" and boy are they happy campers! It's pretty wild to see!

We now return you to the problem at hand.










So, kertesd, WTH were you thinking when you:

A) Considered knowingly purchasing stolen property, and

B) Thought to advertise this in a public forum??

Obviously, you didn't sense that anything was wrong in doing this, or else you would have not created this public thread. Son, take stock of your moral compass. Don't purchase that piece of stolen property and think of what you should do here to redeem your dignity in this forum. Saying "What the hell was I thinking, allowing myself to succumb to this temptation?!" would go a long way.


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## Demosthenes X (Sep 23, 2004)

Wow... eight posts, and half of them deal with illegal activity. Can you pirate me some software, too?  

(That was a joke... if anyone didn't catch on...)


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

winwintoo said:


> And just in case you don't believe me, your information has already been tracked and people here know who you are and know how to find you. The cops won't be far behind.


The internet is anything but anonymous.


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## ron891 (Sep 6, 2006)

I hope after you buy it and fill it with your fav music and photos and videos and all your most treasured stuff, that someone steals it from you (not a nice feeling huh). 
The reason people steal laptops is because people buy stolen laptops... stop the cycle!!


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

ron891 said:


> The reason people steal laptops is because people buy stolen laptops... stop the cycle!!


Well said.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

I think we scared him off. I don't think anything we say will stop him from buying it, he'll just find a forum which condones his actions. Sad sad sad...


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## kertesd (Apr 11, 2007)

wow. I think you all responded to this thread very childishly. Attacking me. I was considering buying it. but after hearing everything you had to say. You made me realize its not worth it. I wont be buying the laptop. Thank's for all your negative comments about me. very friendly comunity. Yea you did scare me away when i buy my mac from the store. i wont be returning to this "canadian" mac comunity ill take my posts else where. Good Riddance



winwintoo said:


> And just in case you don't believe me, your information has already been tracked and people here know who you are and know how to find you. The cops won't be far behind.
> 
> Smarten up.
> 
> Margaret


I think you need to smarten up. Yes cops showing up at my door step because i thought about buying a stolen computer. *thought about*
"sir we read on a fourm that you were planning on buying a stolen laptop, mind if we check to make sure you didnt actually buy it" PLEASE


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## DoNotPokeTheScreen (Jun 9, 2005)

kertesd said:


> You made me realize its not worth it.


That's what you said in the other thread you started, too. Are you sure you're not going to buy it?


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## kertesd (Apr 11, 2007)

anywayz. i told the guy i wouldnt buy it. he dropped the price to 800 and i still refused.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

kertesd said:


> wow. I think you all responded to this thread very childishly. Attacking me.


Well, with three devil smilies in your OP, it's obvious we had our work cut out for us. What the devils say to us is that you knew it would be wrong to do but seemed comfortable considering it -- but that's just in the details...

Devils... "details"... _anybody_ get that?? 

Anyway. Moving right along.

Face it. You exhibited a blatant disregard for fairness and honesty by even considering it... and then you post in a public forum to try and determine whether or not you would GET CAUGHT! What kind of people would we be if we if we didn't come down hard and try to slap you out of it? It's not like you had a  or a  in your post; you had THREE beejacon I'm surprised you didn't use a :greedy: If the alarms weren't going off in your head, they sure were going off in ours











> I was considering buying it. but after hearing everything you had to say. You made me realize its not worth it. I wont be buying the laptop.


Then our work here is done -- if ya follow through, that is.



> Thank's for all your negative comments about me. very friendly comunity.


Yes. We are a friendly community; friendly to that poor sap who got his/her laptop ripped off. We didn't feel right in aiding and abetting the criminal who committed the crime and we wanted you to understand that you shouldn't either.



> i wont be returning to this "canadian" mac comunity ill take my posts else where.


Hey, we're only trying to help with what your parents might have missed.



> Good Riddance


Take care.


PS: That MacBook could be this little girl's MacBook. There was a thread in here a couple of weeks ago about this poor girl getting her MacBook ripped off. Please read that article. Put a face to this "windfall" you came across. EhMac members were trying to think of what could be done, making members aware that this MacBook might surface on the resale market, hoping to get the MacBook's serial number, etc.

It's this type of situation where we try to help where we reasonably can. Get it?


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## Demosthenes X (Sep 23, 2004)

kertesd said:


> wow. I think you all responded to this thread very childishly. Attacking me. I was considering buying it. but after hearing everything you had to say. You made me realize its not worth it. I wont be buying the laptop. Thank's for all your negative comments about me. very friendly comunity. Yea you did scare me away when i buy my mac from the store. i wont be returning to this "canadian" mac comunity ill take my posts else where. Good Riddance


Er, you, the one who thought about buying a stolen MacBook and a stolen MacBook Pro, is trying to make us feel bad? For talking some sense into you and perhaps keeping your from making a very big mistake?

The fact that you had even considered buying stolen property does not reflect well on you... So, to use your words, "good riddance".


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

kertesd, I gave you the benefit of a doubt the first time, but u knew full well the second time.


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## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

kertesd said:


> i wont be returning to this "canadian" mac comunity ill take my posts else where.


Correct you are on that one. Bye.


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## Carl (Jun 7, 2003)

You're a creep and I hope you get banned. Since you know it's stolen, you are an accessory. At least the cops have a place to start looking for you.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Carl my man you indeed missed the memo... right above your avatars head, there.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## jasonwood (Oct 19, 2003)

Lars said:


> If you have every reason to suspect it's stolen, do not buy it - it's against the law. And yes, if the previous owner has flagged its Serial Number as stolen, it will show up at every Apple Store and AASP that attempts to perform a repair on it, as its history is clearly marked - and quite possibly marked as stolen.


Not really true. A law enforecement officer can report a stolen serial number to "Apple Corporate Security", so that it would be flagged if brought into a service provider, but Toronto police adamantly refuses to do this, saying it is the individual's responsibility. And "Apple Corporate Security" adamantly refuses to take the information from anyone outside a police department.

Furthermore, most of the people at Apple customer relations don't even know stolen serial number flagging is available (one told me flat out "no", and most don't know).


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

jasonwood said:


> Not really true. A law enforecement officer can report a stolen serial number to "Apple Corporate Security", so that it would be flagged if brought into a service provider, but Toronto police adamantly refuses to do this, saying it is the individual's responsibility. And "Apple Corporate Security" adamantly refuses to take the information from anyone outside a police department.
> 
> Furthermore, most of the people at Apple customer relations don't even know stolen serial number flagging is available (one told me flat out "no", and most don't know).


All Macs have a history based on their Serial Numbers, which includes calls to Apple technical support, Apple customer relations, and any previously performed repairs. If you call into Apple Customer Relations and report your SN as stolen, the call to Apple will be added to your unit's history, typically entitled what the conversation was primarily about - such a conversation would show up under history as something along the lines of, "Unit reported stolen." That history is accessible to any AASP. At my own AASP, no unit is repaired under myself without a history check being performed. It's an informal way of reporting the unit as stolen (best to file a report with the police), but it gets the word across to AASP/ARR's that may come across the unit later on.


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## Roze (Apr 12, 2010)

*Mine was stolen*

My macbook pro was stolen a few days ago, all my work from the last 2 years is gone because of my mistake of not backing my photography up. My career is at a standstill and I have to restart everything. 

to address your question, mac does not flag stolen computers, they say you have to contact your local law enforcement. All mac does is flag the serial number so that the mac cant get repaired. When its brought into repair it simply says "invalid serial number."
So no, you wont get caught for stealing, you just wont be able to get it fixed, ever. 

morally i hope you will report the seller. I am a pretty poor student who has lost everything only days before finals. my career is at a halt, and so is my education, and i cant even continue to work on anything because i don't have the money to buy a computer to do it on.


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## Bzzliteyr (Jul 29, 2008)

Eek.. necropost!!

On a side note I would like emphasize the easy task of buying an HD enclosure (whatever size you feel you need) and using time machine every day!! 

Of course, don't keep the enclosure with your gear.. leave it at home.. safe.

For the money spent vs. the work lost, I think it's worth it!


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