Josh

Solving Crime via the Internet

I was going to write a very entertaining post about this, but Andy has beat me to it.  I was also going to compare myself to a superhero of some sort, but as I was very much the minority partner in the crime solving duo I was struggling to think of a decent example.  I don't want to be Robin.

Wolverine is kind of Dr. Xavier's side-kick right?  I am perfectly okay being compared to Wolverine.  Although obviously I would much prefer to be Dr. X, who wouldn't?  Or maybe Magneto.  I would like to move anything with my mind, but if there had to be limitations placed upon the power, metal-only seems to be quite a decent one.

So here is Andy's post, original can be found here:

[Also, go buy WaveSecure, I have.  Works on Android, not sure about iPhone]

So, the last day or so has been rather eventful. As some of you following Twitter might’ve noticed, we got burgled on Monday, resulting in the theft of my laptop (of 4 year’s loyal service), HTC Hero (with 9 months more contract to pay off), wallet and change jar; Josh’s camera, old mobile and suit jacket. We believe it was opportunistic, with the door possibly being latched incorrectly, them quickly rifling through the downstairs rooms loading up stuff quickly into my bag, then leaving when they realised that someone was in. This left myself, completely unaware of this, to come downstairs to find the door ajar, my goods missing, to stand there aghast (also known as swearing) that this could happen, stealing the most important items of mine whilst I was home!

However, now unfolds a wonderful tale of why you don’t steal tech from a Compsci (or if you do, don’t take the phone!).

By now it’s probably about 17:30, so i resign myself to the crap of cancelling my cards, calling my mobile to confirm it wasn’t available and calling the police who would arrive within an hour or so. Whilst wallowing in my own feelings of “oh crap, i need to replace shit, why didn’t i get around to purchasing insurance yet?”, I begin to think about whether I actually did set up some remote “wipe your phone when nicked” software. After hunting down the site and remembering my “PIN” (not a bloody password, and no email correspondence of course!), we begin to get somewhere.

The warning we sent to the new owner

Turns out that WaveSecure is actually a damned fine piece of software. Once we got past the login, i was presented with a lovely screen saying “Your phone is LOCKED”. Interesting, we could be onto something here! Lets send them a message, i want all my stuff back not just the phone. Oh, what’s that option? Track?

Turn on times for my phone (in Singapore)

Now this is intriguing! My phone has a problem where if you knock it too hard, it turns off. So it seems that my phone was turned on at 17:13PM and 15 minutes later it had a new SIM inserted, with this wonderful application telling us the new phone number. And there’s another option on the left there, Location. Wonder what this says!

22 GPS traces for my phone, with an anomaly. The dark areas built up over time.

So, we now have the phone’s new number and location! Stuck at home waiting for the police to arrive (their 1 hour estimate moves closer to 2 hours), being quite frustrated by the fact that i could see exactly where my phone was, less than 5 minutes away on the high street! Wanting to leave, but being stuck waiting for the police to arrive (not like they could call me on the mobile if i was out!) was quite painful. I decide it’s not a good idea to call the new number, what good will it be to alert the guy to the fact that we know his phone number? We continue to gather more evidence, and although we know the location, we thought we’d get the police a better estimate. To Google streetview!

A dodgy looking 2nd-hand phone/computer shop, an internet cafe and a barbers. Any could be a front for something...

So we believe it’s sitting in the mobile phone shop, being sold off quickly, having the SIM swapped or trying to be “unlocked”. I remotely back up all my texts and stuff over this application, then remotely wipe the phone’s data just incase. Finally, the police turn up. We give them a statement whilst attempting to focus their attention on our detective work “I know where the phone is; we’ve tracked the guy!”, although i’m sure that getting an instant witness statement probably was top on their list of requirements.

So, after settling down they get us to explain exactly what we’ve got for them. I explain that I had some software and could tell the phone had a new SIM card in it, with the above number, and that it was sitting on the high street, most likely in the mobile phone shop. They decide to call the number and find that it rings. So they call up their guv with a rather odd request, can he go to the high street and check the above shops? They’re going to keep calling the phone and see if he can hear it. Calling it a second time, someone answers, and a (one sided) conversation unfolds:

“Hello? Who’s this?”
“This is the police here. Now this isn’t your phone that you’re talking on is it? No, we know it isn’t your phone. Where are you?”
“Look, this is the police, i need to know where you are?”
“Acton? Where in Acton.”
“Acton High Street? Ok, what shop?”

At this point they’ve confirmed we’re right, and the guy on the other end decides to hang up. They repeatedly call the phone, get as far as explaining it’s the police, before hanging up. Eventually on one of these calls we suddenly hear:

“Hello? Is that you guv?”

The police promptly drive off to the high street, asking us not to follow and assuring us “Don’t worry, someone’s going to get arrested”. We celebrate at home, knowing my phone was safe, with some beers and bucks fizz. We then get called to go over to the police station (at 1AM) to ID our stuff. We get stuck waiting at the station, turns out they got a lot of stuff that they needed to bag up. When they bring us in we see a big bag full of evidence and I begin poking around, eventually finding my laptop. A wave of relief washes over me; we’d won, got (most) of the stuff back, caught the guy and found some other people’s stuff too!

So, we eventually recovered the laptop, my phone and Josh’s camera. The feeling of dread I’d felt less than 3 hours before was replaced with justice; within 6 hours I knew my laptop was safe too. My stuff’s currently stuck in evidence, i’m trying to get at least the SIM card back straight away, although that could have some good fingerprints on it. I might have to give evidence on how I tracked down the phone, but will be all too happy to do so. Many thanks go out to the police for being so cooperative and WaveSecure, which not only got my phone back, but the laptop and camera as well. So the lesson is, if you’re going to steal from a compsci, don’t take their GPS enabled phone…

All in all it was an interesting afternoon.  I had very little at steak in the whole affair though, I was out at Nero revising / writing report, so my brand new phone and wallet and e-reader were with me.  Though they did not take my PC, my printer, either of my laptops or anything else really.  Just my old phone (still don't have that back), my camera and my suit jacket(still don't have that either).

Who steals a suit jacket?  I mean really.  Luckily it was my old going out suit, not my new expensive interview suit.

Also luckily they did not take or disturb my very carefully arranged notes waiting to be scanned.  All four years of my notes are sitting in piles on a table in the middle of my room un-bound and not attached to anything just waiting for me to get around to making a digital copy of them.  Limbs would have been very slowly removed in exchange if they had be taken / destroyed / swept into giant unrecognisable pile on the floor.