Amir Louka and Stephanie
Krebs returned to their West Ghent apartment this summer to a jolt: an open
window, a swinging back door and empty space where their television, laptops and
iPod used to be.
Nearly $5,000 worth of property was missing.
Gone were replaceable items – files backed up on hard drives, study aids – as well as items with more intangible value – graduate school essays and photos.
But they had a hunch that something on one of their three stolen laptops might help them find that computer – and maybe even a culprit.
“I don’t care about the stuff,” said Louka, 25, a third-year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School. “I care that the guy is caught.”
Their hunch was right.
Software applications, network trails and GPS data are just a few of the growing number of tools police use to crack property crimes, technology experts and law enforcement officials say.
Shoe leather and fingerprints have been supplemented by search warrants to trace digital traffic and recover electronic data, said Domingo Rivera, a lawyer and technology consultant based in Richmond.Natural Chinese turquoise beads at Wholesale prices.
The FBI and larger jurisdictions have the best grasp on how to use information from cellphones and the Internet to their benefit, he said. Smaller police forces are learning, too.Wholesale Agate beads from Low Price agate beads, “The technology is there,” Rivera said, “It’s not that complex.”
A former Navy officer and also a trained engineer, Rivera has testified in civil and criminal cases throughout Virginia about computer forensics.
He said he also sees a downside to law enforcement’s use of the technology. Hardware and software companies can essentially track where a user is if the user activates the phone’s location services. So “your privacy is severely compromised,” he said. Still “most people really don’t care,” he said, “as long as their information isn’t compromised.”
In the case of the West Ghent burglary, the perpetrator likely had little idea that the property taken carried an electronic signal for detectives.
On June 25, Louka and his girlfriend, Krebs, also a third-year EVMS student, dropped by their neighbors’ around 8 p.m. for a dinner. They stayed about two hours, they said.
At some point, a burglar likely climbed up a fire escape and slid through an open window, police told the couple. Their electronics were taken, the couple said, but no one touched other personal valuables.
As they waited for the police to arrive, the couple thought about the software on one of their laptops - an Apple Macbook Air. Louka had installed the application Find My iPhone on the machine.
Louka called his computer-savvy brother in Virginia Beach to help. Several keystrokes later, they remotely added another password and essentially locked the laptop.
Police technicians inspected the apartment for fingerprints and searched for other, more traditional clues. The couple told police about the tracking software on the Apple laptop. Police asked them to share any information from the software, Louka said.
“My expectation was to get nothing back,” Krebs said.
In the meantime, the software had set off an invisible beacon.
A laptop is hard to trace, said Tamer Nadeem, computer science professor at Old Dominion University. Unlike a smart phone, laptops do not come equipped with GPS devices, he said.
The laptop tracking system requires more resources, such as network connections and unique user IDs, and does not always lead to a precise location, he said. It can also be thwarted by erasing the computer’s hard disk, Nadeem said.
About 4 p.m. on the day after the burglary, Louka received an automated e-mail indicating his laptop had been opened. He couldn’t immediately get the software to work, he said, so the couple went to the Apple Store at Mac-Arthur Mall for help. An employee, known as a “genius” in Apple stores, got it to work. An icon of a laptop on a Norfolk map indicated a location about six miles away.
The couple took the information to an on-duty officer in the mall, they said. The next morning, Louka and Krebs said, police checked the identified home and found the laptop. The couple said police told them that the man in possession of the laptop said he had bought it from another man, and shared the other man’s name with police.
Norfolk officers thought they had a lead on a suspect. Court papers show that they had collected fingerprints from a burglary scene that matched Connell Pittman, 35, of Norfolk.
Police knew Pittman: He was convicted of statutory burglary in 1997 and 2007, as well as a later charge for receiving stolen goods, online court records show.
In June, police secured warrants against Pittman for burglary and grand larceny but could not find him, court records show. Police subsequently linked Pittman to seven local burglaries and suspected him in others, according to a search warrant.
Police contacted Pittman’s family and got his cellphone number, the warrant states. Pittman hung up every time police called, the warrant states. His mother told a detective that Pittman would not turn himself in “and will only be arrested on the street,” the warrant said.
A magistrate granted a police request to get “real-time” GPS and location information from Pittman’s cellphone service provider, records show.Find detailed product information for shamballa crys talbeads wholesale,
Most smartphones have GPS in them, Nadeem said. It’s used for everyday applications – social networking and finding directions, for example.
A phone’s location can also be found by tracking which cellphone towers the unit connects to, Rivera said. Signals bouncing off fixed, multiple cell towers can be used to calculate, with some high school trigonometry, a phone’s position.
On Aug. 27, three days after executing the search warrant, police arrested Pittman.
A police spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
Spokeswoman Karen Parker-Chesson acknowledged that the department has had success in retrieving stolen property through electronic means. The technology “has produced an arena where investigators are examining Internet footprints for assistance in solving crime,” Parker-Chesson said. She would not comment,Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts. however,Different Sizes and Colors can be made with different stone mosaic designs. on specific techniques used by detectives.
Pittman declined an interview through the Norfolk City Jail. He faces 22 felonies for burglaries and related offenses he is alleged to have committed in Norfolk in June, July and August, including the break-in at Louka and Kreb’s apartment, court records show.
The couple remain in West Ghent and are completing their last years of medical school.
Insurance replaced their stolen goods, and they bought two new Apple laptops. They also called the company to praise the employee who helped them find their missing computer. The company gave them discounts for their new purchases, Krebs said.
Nearly $5,000 worth of property was missing.
Gone were replaceable items – files backed up on hard drives, study aids – as well as items with more intangible value – graduate school essays and photos.
But they had a hunch that something on one of their three stolen laptops might help them find that computer – and maybe even a culprit.
“I don’t care about the stuff,” said Louka, 25, a third-year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School. “I care that the guy is caught.”
Their hunch was right.
Software applications, network trails and GPS data are just a few of the growing number of tools police use to crack property crimes, technology experts and law enforcement officials say.
Shoe leather and fingerprints have been supplemented by search warrants to trace digital traffic and recover electronic data, said Domingo Rivera, a lawyer and technology consultant based in Richmond.Natural Chinese turquoise beads at Wholesale prices.
The FBI and larger jurisdictions have the best grasp on how to use information from cellphones and the Internet to their benefit, he said. Smaller police forces are learning, too.Wholesale Agate beads from Low Price agate beads, “The technology is there,” Rivera said, “It’s not that complex.”
A former Navy officer and also a trained engineer, Rivera has testified in civil and criminal cases throughout Virginia about computer forensics.
He said he also sees a downside to law enforcement’s use of the technology. Hardware and software companies can essentially track where a user is if the user activates the phone’s location services. So “your privacy is severely compromised,” he said. Still “most people really don’t care,” he said, “as long as their information isn’t compromised.”
In the case of the West Ghent burglary, the perpetrator likely had little idea that the property taken carried an electronic signal for detectives.
On June 25, Louka and his girlfriend, Krebs, also a third-year EVMS student, dropped by their neighbors’ around 8 p.m. for a dinner. They stayed about two hours, they said.
At some point, a burglar likely climbed up a fire escape and slid through an open window, police told the couple. Their electronics were taken, the couple said, but no one touched other personal valuables.
As they waited for the police to arrive, the couple thought about the software on one of their laptops - an Apple Macbook Air. Louka had installed the application Find My iPhone on the machine.
Louka called his computer-savvy brother in Virginia Beach to help. Several keystrokes later, they remotely added another password and essentially locked the laptop.
Police technicians inspected the apartment for fingerprints and searched for other, more traditional clues. The couple told police about the tracking software on the Apple laptop. Police asked them to share any information from the software, Louka said.
“My expectation was to get nothing back,” Krebs said.
In the meantime, the software had set off an invisible beacon.
A laptop is hard to trace, said Tamer Nadeem, computer science professor at Old Dominion University. Unlike a smart phone, laptops do not come equipped with GPS devices, he said.
The laptop tracking system requires more resources, such as network connections and unique user IDs, and does not always lead to a precise location, he said. It can also be thwarted by erasing the computer’s hard disk, Nadeem said.
About 4 p.m. on the day after the burglary, Louka received an automated e-mail indicating his laptop had been opened. He couldn’t immediately get the software to work, he said, so the couple went to the Apple Store at Mac-Arthur Mall for help. An employee, known as a “genius” in Apple stores, got it to work. An icon of a laptop on a Norfolk map indicated a location about six miles away.
The couple took the information to an on-duty officer in the mall, they said. The next morning, Louka and Krebs said, police checked the identified home and found the laptop. The couple said police told them that the man in possession of the laptop said he had bought it from another man, and shared the other man’s name with police.
Norfolk officers thought they had a lead on a suspect. Court papers show that they had collected fingerprints from a burglary scene that matched Connell Pittman, 35, of Norfolk.
Police knew Pittman: He was convicted of statutory burglary in 1997 and 2007, as well as a later charge for receiving stolen goods, online court records show.
In June, police secured warrants against Pittman for burglary and grand larceny but could not find him, court records show. Police subsequently linked Pittman to seven local burglaries and suspected him in others, according to a search warrant.
Police contacted Pittman’s family and got his cellphone number, the warrant states. Pittman hung up every time police called, the warrant states. His mother told a detective that Pittman would not turn himself in “and will only be arrested on the street,” the warrant said.
A magistrate granted a police request to get “real-time” GPS and location information from Pittman’s cellphone service provider, records show.Find detailed product information for shamballa crys talbeads wholesale,
Most smartphones have GPS in them, Nadeem said. It’s used for everyday applications – social networking and finding directions, for example.
A phone’s location can also be found by tracking which cellphone towers the unit connects to, Rivera said. Signals bouncing off fixed, multiple cell towers can be used to calculate, with some high school trigonometry, a phone’s position.
On Aug. 27, three days after executing the search warrant, police arrested Pittman.
A police spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
Spokeswoman Karen Parker-Chesson acknowledged that the department has had success in retrieving stolen property through electronic means. The technology “has produced an arena where investigators are examining Internet footprints for assistance in solving crime,” Parker-Chesson said. She would not comment,Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts. however,Different Sizes and Colors can be made with different stone mosaic designs. on specific techniques used by detectives.
Pittman declined an interview through the Norfolk City Jail. He faces 22 felonies for burglaries and related offenses he is alleged to have committed in Norfolk in June, July and August, including the break-in at Louka and Kreb’s apartment, court records show.
The couple remain in West Ghent and are completing their last years of medical school.
Insurance replaced their stolen goods, and they bought two new Apple laptops. They also called the company to praise the employee who helped them find their missing computer. The company gave them discounts for their new purchases, Krebs said.
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