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Stolen U.C. Berkeley Laptop Recovered 330

Posted by Zonk from the should-have-thought-that-transaction-over dept.
linuxwrangler writes "Following up on a previous Slashdot story, the laptop with personal data on 98,000 former U.C. Berkeley grad students which was stolen in March has been recovered. Shuki Alburati, A San Francisco State freshman who makes money selling computers and cell-phones online, says he bought the laptop for $300 from a woman who fits the description of the suspect in the original theft. The drive was reformatted and investigators can't tell if the personal info was accessed but they have believed all along that the thief was only interested in the computer. Alburati, who says he was suspicious of someone looking to sell an expensive laptop so cheaply, nonetheless took the woman's word that laptop was not stolen. He then resold the laptop on eBay for $1,159 - just $18,805 short of his bail after police arrested him."
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Stolen U.C. Berkeley Laptop Recovered More

Stolen U.C. Berkeley Laptop Recovered

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  • How did they catch him? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by autopr0n ( 534291 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:51PM (#13580573) Homepage Journal
    Did he sell the laptop to someone else, or was the school just buying every laptop on Ebay that fit the description?

  • I'm confused (Score:5, Interesting)

    by captaincucumber ( 450913 ) * on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:52PM (#13580574)
    It's illegal to buy a laptop from someone if it turns out that laptop was stolen, even if you didn't know that when you bought it? Is it also illegal for me to think that's excessive?

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    • Re:I'm confused (Score:4, Informative)

      by spyder913 ( 448266 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:55PM (#13580604)
      Yes, but usually if you're not in possesion of a lot of stolen property, they will just confiscate the goods and/or money recieved from the sale of it.

      On the other hand if you bought a LOT of 'questionable' goods then they might actually go after you. Fencing is not a legal activity.

    • Re:I'm confused (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mr. Underbridge ( 666784 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:55PM (#13580611)
      It's illegal to buy a laptop from someone if it turns out that laptop was stolen, even if you didn't know that when you bought it? Is it also illegal for me to think that's excessive?

      Well, currently he's the only person linked to said laptop in a definitive manner. And for what it's worth - though impossible to prove - if you believe him when he says he didn't know it was stolen, I've got a rather large bridge to sell you in a lovely area of New York.

      This guy's making money by selling laptops and cell phones online. He's a fence.

      • Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Informative)

        by Vellmont ( 569020 )

        This guy's making money by selling laptops and cell phones online. He's a fence.
        There's an article in the SFGate that says he posted an ad on craigslist for laptops. If true at the very least he's not a fence that you see in movies where there's an established and re-occouring relationship between the thief and the fence.

        I guess I don't see enough evidence in what's come out so far to establish that the guys a fence. I think he must have thought there was something up with the laptop from it being sold at
        • Would be that something didn't work quite right on the laptop, not that it was stolen. Quite often people will bugger up a perfectly good laptop and assume it was 'broken.' Some of these people sell at a fairly low price... but a little easy tech-work or just even a reinstall will have it working just spiffy.
          • Some of these people sell at a fairly low price... but a little easy tech-work or just even a reinstall will have it working just spiffy.

            And those people frequently want cash and you do not bother making sure they own the stuff because you are busy salivating at the prospect of huge profit after some of that "easy reinstall", right? In other words, your greed blinds you in your mad rush to rip the "sucker" off when buying these items. Tell me, what do you think a thief says to the fence? "Hey Sparky, I swi

            • There are people who toss out their computers because they're infected with spyware. If I were buying from them instead and tried to tell them I wasn't going to take it because it was too low a price and they could easily re-install, they'd just throw it out instead of selling it to me, letting me do the re-install and making a profit.

              I don't know if this guy is a fence or not. But I think there needs to be some sort of provision in the law for people who do not habitually deal in stolen stuff.

              • In a way there is. If he kept a photo copy of the sellers drivers licence with the make/model/serial of the computer he bought the law would have left him alone upon production of said photo copy (they would likely still take his proceeds from the sale though).
                -nB
              • There are people who toss out their computers because they're infected with spyware. If I were buying from them instead and tried to tell them I wasn't going to take it because it was too low a price and they could easily re-install, they'd just throw it out instead of selling it to me, letting me do the re-install and making a profit.

                Sigh. A conversation with a honest reseller goes like this:

                Customer: "Hey I got this junk PC to sell, it is broke, spyware ate it, gimme $50"
                Buyer: "You should be aware tha

          • Quite often people will bugger up a perfectly good laptop and assume it was 'broken.' Some of these people sell at a fairly low price... but a little easy tech-work or just even a reinstall will have it working just spiffy.

            That is an excellent point. Remember this article [slashdot.org] from the recent past? If somebody's computer is spyware-riddled, they may just think it's broken beyond repair, and buy a new one. The old computer will be sold, probably very cheaply, even though all it really needs is just a new

      • This guy's making money by selling laptops and cell phones online. He's a fence.

        Yes, he's a fence who knew enough to wipe the disk... but apparently not enough to erase the hardware's serial number (nor would I). Even so, is the used-computer market that small, or was he just way unlucky in his choice of buyers?

      • It's basically what they always do. They're arresting him in order to work out a deal to find and convict the actual thief. He'll probably cop to possession of stolen property (a lesser offense than actually selling stolen property) and be sentenced time served + community service.
    • As others have pointed out, if a "reasonable person" could think it was stolen (i.e., $1800 laptop for $300), then willful ignorance is no excuse. If you think about it, it makes sense. Otherwise, criminals could launder stolen goods with impunity. All they have to do is claim "I didn't know it was stolen".

      In practice, if you buy something stolen but naively thought you were just "getting a good deal", then you'll probably get off with a slap on the wrist. Make it a habit, though, and you'll be in big tro

      • How many pawn shop owners have been arrested for selling stolen goods unknowingly? They surrepticiously obtain goods below market value all the time.
        • Hmm, good question. I would imagine that's a hard nut to crack, but I found this link [pbso.org] which is interesting regarding some local regulations.
          • My favourite line from that line:

            Often times you can pay the pawn shop the amount of money they paid for the property and have the money returned to you.

            So a pawn shop owner buys stolen property, and you have to pay them to recover it??? Crazy...

            So if an individual is in posession of stolen goods it's a felony, but if it's a pawn shop it doesn't matter? That's just stupid.

      • Maybe that's the position in the US, but in the UK you have to be sure the item was stolen to be convicted for handling. Reasonable suspicion isn't enough.

    • It's illegal to steal a laptop, and if you're caught possessing and/or selling stolen goods, that's automatically probable cause for arrest on charges of theft. Arrest is only the first step in a long process which may or may not lead to the conviction of you or someone else you ratted out on criminal charges.
    • One night around midnight on Market and 5th in San Francisco, a guy came up to me--he was totally tweaking and said he had a brand-new laptop that he needed to get rid of quickly. I looked at it and it was a Sony Vaio laptop box completely shrinkwrapped with a UPC code sticker on it.

      He wanted $200 and I said I had $50 but I wanted to open it. We sat down at a bus stop and I proceeded to open it. He said "Oh shit, cops cops cops...give me the money quick." I gave him the money and walked away. He went th

    • "She seemed suspicious, because she sold me an expensive laptop for such a low price. If the laptop was stolen, I did not know about it. I just took her word for it."

      If you're "suspicious" that an item you're going to buy is stolen, then you shouldn't buy it. In the UK at least it is an offence to buy stolen goods while knowing or believing them to be stolen. I'd be very surprised to hear the law was substantially different in the US.

      If the facts are as reported, he doesn't have much of a leg to stand on.
    • I've quoted some California law below. As with many sections of law, there is a "reasonable man" standard. In other words, "She said it wasn't stolen" doesn't wash in court if the prosecutor can show that a "reasonable man" would find the transaction suspicious. In this case that may be pretty easy since Alburati said, "She seemed suspicious, because she sold me an expensive laptop for such a low price..."

      It's likely that he reformatted the computer for sale on eBay. If, while working on it, he noticed anyt

  • Better Article (Score:4, Informative)

    by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman AT gmail DOT com> on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:52PM (#13580576) Homepage Journal
    The CNN article seems to be missing many of the facts presented in the summary. Here's a better article, [mercurynews.com] though I still find no mention of the fellow "being assured" that the laptop was legit.
    • Here's the article [sfgate.com] where he claims:
      "The whole transaction only took about one minute," Alburati said in a statement to police. "She seemed suspicious, because she sold me an expensive laptop for such a low price. If the laptop was stolen, I did not know about it. I just took her word for it."
    • Summary for those who don't want to RTFA: After the thief turned on the computer, the computer dialed into Microsoft's mainframe and personally alerted Bill Gates that the laptop of a very important person had been stolen.

      (If you don't get the joke, listen to the original audio file)

  • Theft (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mysqlrocks ( 783488 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:53PM (#13580586) Homepage Journal

    he bought the laptop for $300 from a woman who fits the description of the suspect in the original theft

    I don't think she would have bothered selling the computer if she was interested in the data. I'm sure the data is worth much more than $300 to the right person.
    • Thats the thing ... When I heard this story, I thought the ENTIRE point of the story was to laugh at the teacher making up all this bullshit to scare the thief into getting the laptop back ... are we meant to believe that laundry list of data he claimed was on his laptop was actually there?
    • I don't think she would have bothered selling the computer if she was interested in the data.

      It could be like the classic cop show scenario: murderer steals victims wallet to make it look like theft.

      Data thief sells hardware to conceal theft of data.

  • Trust your instincts, Mr. Alburati. (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Angry Mick ( 632931 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:56PM (#13580612) Homepage
    Alburati, who says he was suspicious of someone looking to sell an expensive laptop so cheaply, nonetheless took the woman's word that laptop was not stolen.

    Nice to see that, although his instinct is sharp as a tack, he stayed true to his business goals.

  • Possession of Stolen Property (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Stargoat ( 658863 ) <stargoat@gmail.com> on Friday September 16, 2005 @05:56PM (#13580613) Journal
    Can a person be convicted of solely possessing stolen property, when it was purchased in good faith from the thief? It violates the idea of intent to commit a crime, namely that there must be intent and knowledge for an action to be morally wrong. It means that no matter what you purchase, if it ever happened to have been stolen, you could be held liable. I'll be contacting my local congressmen if this is the case.

    • He hasn't been convicted as yet, just charged, which is pretty common. His defense will consist of trying to prove that he had no idea it was stolen and did, in fact, buy it in good faith.

      It's not looking too good for him, though. A little more info on this guy's reasoning can be found here [sfgate.com] as well.

      • Actually, he doesn't even have to prove he didn't know it was stolen. All he needs to do is make the jurors doubt the claim that he knew what was going on. Here in the USofA, if a juror has a reasonable doubt as to the guilt, they are expected to vote Not Guilty. I've read the article linked to in the Parent, and he just took the woman's word that it wasn't stolen, making no effort to check. By his own admission, he didn't know her, and the transaction took only a minute or so. If I were a juror, I'd b
      • If(hypothetically) he is found innocent, does he get the bail money any lawyers fees paid back? If not, it's a sad reflection of our apathetic society that this behavior is "pretty common" and nobody cares about it.
    • Can a person be convicted of solely possessing stolen property, when it was purchased in good faith from the thief?

      Yes, if your story is as bad as this guys was. "Well, I kinda wondered if it was stolen, but she said it wasn't, so I bought it..." Kind of hard to prove "good faith" when the deal is as obviously skewed as this one was.
    • I'd hope you need actual evidence to prove intent. Likely what would happen is the police would raid his house/apartment and confiscate anything that might be stolen (big stacks of electronics sitting around unused for instance). They'd then try to find out if any of this stuff was stolen. If most of the things he's selling can be shown to have been stolen, I'd guess the courts can get a conviction on that.
    • The general conclusion of replies here seem at odds with yard sales and other venues when people selling property do not know the actual value of items, which could happen easily with computer equipment, or have a serious need for the cash quickly (such as to pay rent). Therefore, I think the prosecution will have to prove more than 'the defendant knew the item had a very low price compared to market value' as many people make a living off of spotting such opportunities. Arbitrage rests on this very conce
    • According to this site [freeadvice.com], this is only a crime when you know that the property is stolen.
      • only a crime when you know that the property is stolen.

        From the article:

        says he bought the laptop for $300 from a woman who fits the description of the suspect in the original theft

        If he admits that he know this before he put the laptop up for sale then he could be in a lot of trouble.

    • Can a person be convicted of solely possessing stolen property, when it was purchased in good faith from the thief?

      You better believe it. Possessing stolen property is a crime.

      If they really believe you didn't know, the DA may choose not to prosecute.
    • Can a person be convicted of solely possessing stolen property, when it was purchased in good faith from the thief?

      I don't know how many of you folks ever have run-ins with the man, but while IANAL, I've had more than my fair share of encounters with the system:

      If they want to fuck you, they'll fuck you. If you bought the computer in good faith, and genuinely couldn't have known it was stolen, but are poor and black, don't count on an easy time of it.

      If you are white, middle class, and can pull off

  • Methods (Score:2, Funny)

    by gunpowda ( 825571 )
    Forensic tests showed files on the laptop had been erased and written over with a new operating system installation



    And they couldn't have just figured this out by turning the laptop on? Do you need forensic tests to work out that a new OS is on there?

    • Forensic tests showed files on the laptop had been erased and written over with a new operating system installation

      And they couldn't have just figured this out by turning the laptop on? Do you need forensic tests to work out that a new OS is on there?

      Turning it on probably is a forensic test. Maybe they ran a scan disk. Have you ever talked to one of the guys who handles forensic data stuff? My uncle is technically trained in it, being a high up in the prosecutors office, but he still has his wife send

    • If you do a quick format during the OS install then it's very possible that someone who knows what they are doing can still read the files mentioned in the article. They had to make sure that data was copied on top of the important info.

    • Forensic tests require not booting the Hard Drive (Score:4, Informative)

      by dananderson ( 1880 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:28PM (#13580885) Homepage
      Do you need forensic tests to work out that a new OS is on there?

      Yes, because you don't know a priori what happened—whether it's a new OS or if a few files were removed or what. Once you boot the HD, you stomp on files and write over possibly valuable erased files. Forensic tests require looking at the drive read-only and also recovering previoulsy-erased files (which are often a gold mine)

    • Sure you can turn it on and see if the files are still visible to the OS, but its another thing completely to turn it on and see if the files have been OVERWRITTEN, which means they are unrecoverable.

      BIG difference.

  • The Chron's article, and a fence on ebay. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nweaver ( 113078 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:01PM (#13580656) Homepage
    San Francisco Chronicle [sfgate.com]

    However, said Froshling is SCUM. To buy a $2000+ laptop ($2500, but how old?) (X40 IBM) laptop for $300? He KNEW it was stolen. He's being nothing more than a fence with an EBay account. And he'll get off with just a misdemenor. SCUM!

  • His bail was $19,964? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jeblucas ( 560748 ) <[jeblucas] [at] [gmail.com]> on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:03PM (#13580668) Homepage Journal
    He then resold the laptop on eBay for
    $1,159 - just $18,805 short of his bail after police arrested him."
    Lemme see, carry the 1..., 9, yeah... hmm. What? Just a capricious judge?

    "Bail is set, to, I don't know, $27,648.33. I'm a judge and I can do what I want."

  • Been there, done that... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Afecks ( 899057 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:14PM (#13580766)
    I got arrested for buying a stolen Army laptop, except I didn't get a good deal. I paid basically full price but it was still new in the box. I think that was the only thing that saved my ass. This guy may be in a little trouble for "receiving stolen property". RSP is pretty hard to prove but usually the biggest factor is getting too good of a deal on something. If you have reason to suspect something is stolen, you are guilty of aiding the thief.

    This guy bought a ridiculously cheap laptop and then sold it in a public auction. This guy is doubly stupid. I have no pity for him.

  • the Reasonable Person standard (Score:3, Informative)

    by bensafrickingenius ( 828123 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:14PM (#13580774)
    Man, hard to find a good link to a legal concept. This one should do: http://www.duhaime.org/Tort/ca-negl.aspx [duhaime.org].
    • A good cite, but there's another principle here: Res ipsa loquitur, [wikipedia.org] or, "The act speaks for itself." Usually used in negligence cases, it refers to times when there's no way to demonstrate just who caused an accident, but the event is so outrageous that there's no other way to account for it. the Wikpedia article includes a description of the case that produced the principle if you're interested. Here, I think it might apply, because as the defendent himself admits, he bought the laptop in the street fro

  • Feedback (Score:3, Funny)

    by Chairboy ( 88841 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:26PM (#13580855) Homepage
    I think the real question here is, did he receive positive or negative feedback once the transaction was complete?

  • $19,964? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Geoffreyerffoeg ( 729040 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:27PM (#13580872)
    He then resold the laptop on eBay for $1,159 - just $18,805 short of his bail after police arrested him.

    What kind of judge sets a bail at $19,964? Is this the Walmart Court? *pictures what the Walmart Court would be*

    "Always Low Bails." "We're Rolling Back (tm) your execution date!"

  • Security 101 folks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by msaver ( 907214 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:39PM (#13580972)
    Personal information of nearly a hundred thousand former students has no business whatsoever on a laptop.

    Who let this happen? Sheesh... you'd think the birthplace of the *BSD's could work out something a little safer than putting others' personal data on a tiny device that screams "steal me! steal me!" OpenSSH is good (w/ X tunneling if needed) and Remote Desktop (preferably tunneled though SSH) will do the job.

  • His crime was trust (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RocketRainbow ( 750071 ) <rocketgirl@Nospam.myrealbox.com> on Friday September 16, 2005 @07:01PM (#13581148) Homepage Journal
    Who ARE you people?

    The general Slashdot opinion is
    *He was a thief because he bought something at a low price with the intention of selling it - without caring whether it might be non-legitimate

    *He was stupid because his greed stopped him from seeing that it was clearly stolen and he could go to jail

    You know what? People sell things cheaply all the time! I'd be more concerned at $300 that the thing was a lemon - it would never cross my mind that it had been stolen. I'm an honest person - a fundamentalist. I believe that using a stolen computer is bad karma for me - but you ask and you have to trust other humans. Otherwise you're just another hater.

    So you ask the person "why are you selling it?"

    And the person answers "Well I'm about to go overseas, I need to get cash pronto for an operation, my wife left me and I'm buying her out of the house" or whatever story the person has. If it's not a valid reason, then you apply your ethical belief appropriately (with extra caution for merchants!)

    What sort of paranoid fool checks up on every arrangement she makes? Who does it take to say "I don't believe you - prove that you don't know the value of this item!"

    Pawn shops are always full of great deals on specialist items such as camera lenses, because even pawnbrokers don't know the value of things. So why distrust someone selling a computer?

    Are you really all so caught up in this culture of fear that you check and double-check everything you do? Just in case the Thought Police come and take you away?

    What next? I know, you won't be able to buy a hard drive because what if it once contained copies of songs? In fact, you won't be able to buy the computer used to obtain those copies - and that could be any computer! New network card? Practically fraud! And don't forget your new OEM microsoft software as you buy your shiny new computer! Good consumer!
  • someone steals a laptop, deceives person2 into buying it in good faith, then person2 gets punished? Damn, US law is fucked up...

    • Re:wow... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by The MAZZTer ( 911996 )
      Imagine you're the one who buys a $2000 laptop for $300. Now, you understand this person is selling the laptop for MUCH less than they can get for it. They obviously want to get rid of it quickly. Now list some of the reasons they would do this... oh wait, there's only one possible one... bad things happen if they're caught with it. Which means you shouldn't want anything to do with it, or you should report your suspicions to the authorities.

      This is actually one of the few places where US law WORKS.
      • how about...
        I'm broke right now and need money?
        I've been in that situation several times because of unemployment, student loan running out, etc.
        If you don't have anyone you can borrow from, whats next?

      • Re:wow... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Legion303 ( 97901 )
        I was about to buy a friend's laptop for $300 until I opened my mouth and told him how much they were going for on eBay. Some people really don't have an idea of how much things are worth sometimes. On the other hand, it's not the police force's job to punish people; they arrested him on suspicion of receiving stolen property (or something similar)...it's the job of the court system to determine whether it was intentional and hand out punishment if needed.

  • Some things that bother me about this... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Hosiah ( 849792 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @10:07PM (#13582019)
    (1) Just what was all that personal data *doing* in a laptop walking around in the first place? Shouldn't it be residing on a nice, solid server somewhere in a basement behind a couple of locked doors? Why, exactly, would you need to carry 98,000 people's worth of data around with you? Were they going out to print up birthday cards?

    (2) Buy laptop for $300, sell for $1159 on Ebay. Hmmmm.. Sorry, those of you pointing the finger at the guy, I'm less inclined to believe he was intentionally committing a criminal act. Would one be so brazen as to openly sell it in so public a manner, particularly when this high-profile case was broadcast all over the internet? I think he was just stupid, not thieving. Besides, he could have made himself less suspicious by lying and saying he got it for...say...$850, low enough to still be a bargain, but not so low as to scream, "Hot goods!"

    (3) What kind of idiot sells a stolen laptop for a measly 300 scoots? Even ghetto druggies of the most alley-bound (some of whom I've known...having lived in California) know to charge higher than that, no matter how desperate for a rock they are. And that makes me go...

    (4) How do you let somebody who looks (and smells) like *that* much of a lowlife get on the property without calling security, let alone near your thousand-dollar, precious-data-encrusted laptop?

  • Encryption (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @10:13PM (#13582047)
    Not surprisingly, nobody asks why such personal data on a mobile computer was not encrypted.

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