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Four Men Arrested Over Million-Dollar MacBook Heist 100

Posted by Soulskill from the worst-way-to-tile-your-bathroom dept.
An anonymous reader writes: In January of 2014, Anton Saljanin was hired to drive 1,195 Apple MacBooks, valued at over $1 million, from a vendor in Massachusetts to a pair of high schools in New Jersey. The day after picking them up, he told police that the truck disappeared overnight while he slept. Later that day, he told police he just happened to spot the truck abandoned in a parking lot while he was driving down the highway. Unfortunately for him, detectives quickly realized none of these things could be true. Footage from CCTV cameras and cell-site records for his phone indicated he met with his brother and drove to another suspect's house, where they unloaded the laptops. Later, a fourth man helped them sell some of the MacBooks, often at steep discounts. The four men have now been charged in federal court for the theft.
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Four Men Arrested Over Million-Dollar MacBook Heist More

Four Men Arrested Over Million-Dollar MacBook Heist

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  • Doing the math... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dancindan84 ( 1056246 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @07:30AM (#50466483)

    That's what? 10 Macbooks?

  • LoJack (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Intrepid imaginaut ( 1970940 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @07:49AM (#50466519)

    And once again another reminder that anyone carrying a cellphone is effectively transmitting their location to the authorities at all times.

    • i think the fact that they are tracked by serial number from the factory along with all the components in there helps as well

    • ^^^ This.

      It amazes me just how many people (criminals especially) just don't get this.

      They're carrying a GPS-enabled device, and if that's not enough, triangulating off the cell towers it passes near to is trivial and accurate.

      And they wonder how they get caught....

      • Re:LoJack (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @12:08PM (#50467557)

        It amazes me just how many people (criminals especially) just don't get this.

        In Hollywood movies, the criminals are usually brilliant masterminds, because that makes for an interesting story. But, in real life, most criminals are pretty stupid. There are plenty of risk-free legal avenues for an amoral smart person to get rich. For instance, they can go to law school, or become investment bankers.

        • It amazes me just how many people (criminals especially) just don't get this.

          In Hollywood movies, the criminals are usually brilliant masterminds, because that makes for an interesting story. But, in real life, most criminals are pretty stupid.

          Yup. As my cop friends say, "We only catch the stupid ones." One detective I know told me whenever they had a breaking that match a certain profile they'd go find "John" and ask him if he did it. If he did, he'd fess up and ask how did they know? The say because the last 10 times we had a burglary like this you did, so we decided to save some time and see if you did this one as well. Another favorite was the guy who, good citizen he was, called in a crime in progress form a payphone. Trouble was the crime h

        • Actually the big difference is that in real life the brilliant criminal masterminds don't have an even more brilliant hero cop outfoxing them, don't attract attention to themselves by using automatic weapons and explosives in public, and move into even harder to detect and stop white collar crimes asap.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          In Hollywood movies, the criminals are usually brilliant masterminds, because that makes for an interesting story. But, in real life, most criminals are pretty stupid.

          Hollywood scriptwriters can be pretty stupid, too. Every freaking season of 24 had a traitor that communicated with her handlers, right in the middle of the agency headquarters, with a cell phone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ihtoit ( 3393327 )

        GPS capability not required at all. CST is accurate to 3 feet and to the second.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by readin ( 838620 )

      And once again another reminder that anyone carrying a cellphone is effectively transmitting their location to the authorities at all times.

      The summary also mentioned CCTV. Just another reminder that anyone reflecting light is effectively transmitting their location to the authorities at all times.

  • book 'em Dano, grand theft (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06, 2015 @07:49AM (#50466521)

    ...just think of the poor kids having to suffer with windows even longer than necessary....

  • Don't any of them watch TV? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Granted that TV cop shows are not the most technically accurate, but, still....

    Have they never seen a cop show? Do they not know that iPhones are wonderful little tracking devices (better than ankle bracelets because they are actually useful to the holder)? Do they not know that the cops are going to investigate their statements? Do they not put any effort into backing their lies?

    Lying to me is bad. Telling me lies that assume I'm either lazy or stupid is really bad.

  • Mac video surveillance strikes again? (Score:3)

    by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @08:11AM (#50466607)

    I was actually wondering if they were reported by the vice principal trying to monitor children in their homes with "educational spyware" installed on the laptops, much like that previously reported on Slashdot.

                          http://www.pcmag.com/article2/... [pcmag.com]

  • Interesting names. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rei ( 128717 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @08:44AM (#50466691) Homepage

    On or about January 15, 2014, ANTON SALJANIN

    Anagram for "Anal Ninja Snot"

    brought his brother, GJON SALJANIN, with him

    Anagram for "A Ninja Logs NJ"

    and CARLOS CACERES,

    The ironically anagramed "Car case closes"

    the residence of UJKA VULAJ

    ... I got nothing. Are we sure this wasn't a cat walking on the keyboard at the police department?

  • The Real Thieves, Though... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bing Tsher E ( 943915 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @09:59AM (#50466929) Journal

    The real thieves are whomever specified and ordered all those Macbooks for school kids. Overpriced status hardware that will mean nothing to rooms full of impatient adolescents. The theft victims are the taxpayers. I'm sure there's an Apple sales rep involved and some school adminstrator who got nice swag out of the deal.

    Why not more reasonably priced hardware? Chromebooks or even some 'doze laptops. Apple branded stuff, like Coach handbags is for snobby individuals, not semi-enterprise settings like a school.

    Here's your TCO cue, shills.

    • Oh come off it. I bought tons of ChromeBooks for the secondary school I work at but there is no way a ChromeBook == MacBook. For my Python course I am not using any of the ChromeBooks because cloud programming is not a practical and the Python apps are OK but lack Python 3 in many cases and in both options I can't easily add modules and students need to agree to terms of service they might not be able to so we will keep working in the computer lab with Windows installs. I'm not installing crouton in dev mod
    • Actually, wasn't there at least one study done lately that shows that issuing computers to students hasn't improved their grades significantly enough to justify the expense, regardless of who manufactured the hardware? And that they're just screwing around on them instead of doing actual schoolwork anyway? If I'm correct then the 'real thieves' would be anyone who advocated buying any laptops for students in the first place. Also, virtual modding you down by one for using this as a vehicle for your personal

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by swb ( 14022 )

        You have obvious proof that issuing computers doesn't make for smarter adults. The people who put men on the moon went to schools where advanced learning tools included paper, pencils, slide rules and a chalkboard. Electric lighting was their most valued educational technology. The laptop generation can't put a man on the moon and their big achievment is...Snapchat?

        Issuing laptops to students is kind of the perfect storm of misguided intentions. The affluent parent wants to insure their kids have all pe

        • Let's be fair: The reason we haven't put personnel back on the Moon is mainly economic and political, not a technological deficit, and you have to admit that we didn't put men on the Moon in the first place for any scientific reasons, we did it for purely political reasons, specifically to beat Russia there. In fact now that I think about it for a moment, it hits me that we might not have had developed the first nuclear bombs if Germany hadn't been working on such a thing themselves, am I right?

          You're most

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by swb ( 14022 )

            The point isn't that we don't put men on the moon now technologically, the point is that we DID manage to produce a large population of highly educated adults with very simple educational tools and we did it in spite of fairly substantial things that are currently considered justifications for issuing laptops today -- fewer than half of the population finished high school before then 1930s (meaning mom and dad didn't have much of an education at all), 5% of the population was totally illiterate in any langu

    • The real thieves are whomever specified and ordered all those Macbooks for school kids. Overpriced status hardware that will mean nothing to rooms full of impatient adolescents.

      Let me preface this by stating that I think most programs to use computers in school are trash, and less effective than traditional teaching methods. Of course they make sense in specialized courses like intro to CS, but not for teaching regular courses.

      That said, if you start with the assumption that having the kids use a compu

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Let me preface this by stating that I think most programs to use computers in school are trash, and less effective than traditional teaching methods.

          My personal opinion is that schools shouldn't be doing this to begin with if they don't understand technology. They will only set false expectations and poor knowledge forward in students with it.

          Forget false expectations for students.

          There are people leaving school these days without basic knowledge of how to use a computer and are having to be trained by employers. Whilst I know that school shouldn't be strictly preparation for the work force, it should still teach basic skills. Hand Holding mac's combined with rote memorisation teaching methods ensure that people leave school with no idea on how to find a file using a file manager. I'm serious, I've seen support cases for "I cant find my word"

    • TCO? Meh. MacBooks are better computers. They can afford them, you can't. Sucks to be you.

    • Here's your TCO cue, shills.

      ...over my Hateboi Hatorade!"

      Why not more reasonably priced hardware? Chromebooks or even some 'doze laptops.

      You mean more cheaply made laptops? Sure, the school could have done that, but then they'd be getting what they paid for. A plastic Chromebook isn't going to take the abuse of an aluminum case and is going to be far more limited in what it can do. An equivalently speced "doze" laptop is going to cost you an equivalent price, with any meager savings made up for by the h

  • If this hadn't been an apple product - like say some TVs for schools - would this have warranted mention? I don't track the changes in editors and who's now putting these up (dice, etc), but this article calls out for moderators being able to moderate the post-worthiness of the article. It'd be useful if those with mod points can mod-down the article so it doesn't appear unless you have your thresholds set to view meaningless filler posts. How bout it, editors?
  • There's a cynical, snarky, conspiracy-theory-esque part of me that wants to say, "This is propaganda from the authorities, indoctrinating the general public that law enforcement is infallable, nigh-unto omniscent and omnipotent, so you'd better never consider breaking any law for any reason because you'll always get caught", but the truth of the matter is, the average crook really isn't that smart in the first place, otherwise they'd probably apply themselves to legitimate enterprises to make money instead

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dmt0 ( 1295725 )
      I think the moral of the story is simpler. The only thing in this article that makes it relevant for the "News for nerds" site is the presence of computers in the story. It's a paid PR article for Apple. The message is that Mac laptops are as valuable as money. Nothing more. Everything else is just fluff to feed the discussion.
      • If that's what you really feel then why are you still coming here? Listening to you, Slashdot has 'sold out' to whoever they'd sell out to, and is effectively dead; shouldn't you be moving on to somewhere more to your liking?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dmt0 ( 1295725 )
          Why? Overall Slashdot is not bad at all. Lot's of interesting stories. From time to time there's a paid story coming through. It's useful to identify them for what they are.
  • If you ever want to get away with something, NEVER TELL ANYONE, especially SIRI and Cortana !!!
  • hoo really nice article :)

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