A suspected laptop thief was arrested after hi-tech tracking software took a photograph of the culprit – and automatically e-mailed it to the machine’s owner.
The laptop’s owner remotely activated the free tracking software after his computer was stolen in a burglary at a house in the Woodhouse area of Leeds last month.
He informed police that the system had not only pinpointed the location of the stolen machine, but had also taken a high quality image of the person using it and emailed it to him.
Just 29 hours after the break-in, officers tracked the laptop to an address less than 300 yards away from where the burglary happened and arrested a 19-year-old woman.
A 37-year-old man was later arrested and both have been charged with burglary.
In another incident, a smartphone stolen from a 23-year-old man in a street robbery in Hyde Park in October was recovered within an hour after tracking software led officers to Commercial Street in Leeds city centre.
A 24-year-old man was arrested and later charged with handling stolen goods.
Now West Yorkshire Police are urging more people who have received hi-tech gadgets as Christmas gifts to help them fight crime by using the latest tracking technology.
Smartphones and laptops, which are some of the most popular items stolen by burglars and street robbers, can have readily-available tracking software downloaded onto them – usually for free – that can help the police to recover the item and catch the thieves.
The software can be activated if the item is stolen and pinpoints its whereabouts using the device’s built-in Global Positioning System (GPS).
As well as allowing police to pinpoint the whereabouts of the stolen item, many can also remotely restrict access to personal data, delete passwords and even take a photograph of the thief or handler using a stolen laptop’s webcam.
Insp Ian Scott, pictured left, of the North West Inner Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “It cannot be overstated how valuable this software is proving in helping us not just to catch thieves and handlers of stolen goods but in helping us to reunite people with their stolen gadgets.
“This tracking technology is readily available for free and is easy to download.
“It doesn’t interfere with the normal operation of the phone or laptop until it is activated if the device is stolen.”
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