Stolen Items, please keep an eye out

[chk071]

You must be thinking that your point is extremely weak if you have to resort to personal insults immediately.

[Daags]

no 'points' being made here, just offering up facts, and correcting you where your comprehension has failed.

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

if there's a rubber piece from a synth in the neighbors' yard, that's a fairly big tell. seems to me that would warrant a search warrant by the police.

what do these guys look like? are they scrawny meth heads, or mma looking dudes or what?

one of the worst parts of gear theft is that the gear has so little value to the thieves. music gear typically has less re-sale value than automobiles.

hope you get it sorted. time is of the essence. they'll be trying to move that gear.

[bbaggins]

I have never seen more than the tops of their heads over the fence. They are in their late teens or early 20's. They do not have jobs, as their lights and TVs are on all night and cars remain in the driveway at daytime. Tweakers, don't know. Layabouts, definitely.

Another lesson: save your receipts in a secure location! I am contacting music stores and online retailers trying to get reprints of receipts I've lost. Fortunately, they like to keep track of their customers' purchase histories. Whew. But think about all the stompboxes and cables you just paid cash for and never thought twice. I reckon it'll cost me over $400 just to replace all my instrument and patch cables - and few receipts for any of that stuff. Think about things you bought second-hand via Craigslist and never bothered to ask for a receipt. And things you bought online and only have an emailed receipt - all my email history disappeared with the stolen computer.

[ATN69]

Is the police doing anything at all? Do they even care?

For your next computer you should install a tracker software. I have it in my studio computer. If the computer comes online I can track it down.

[deastman]

Is the police doing anything at all? Do they even care?

For your next computer you should install a tracker software. I have it in my studio computer. If the computer comes online I can track it down.

What tracker software is that?

[ATN69]

Is the police doing anything at all? Do they even care?

For your next computer you should install a tracker software. I have it in my studio computer. If the computer comes online I can track it down.

What tracker software is that?

I actually use 2 of them. One is called "Prey" and it present location of the computer on google maps. Another one is linked to the CPU. Intel have an id number of every CPU. You can register your CPU with Intel. I don't remember the exact name but I Think it is called Intel anti theft. You can read more about that one here,

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/pr ... -brief.pdf

[llze]

for anyone interested in building their own home security system, packt has published a free ebook today:

https://www.packtpub.com/packt/offers/free-learning

quite a good read imo.

[bbaggins]

Thanks for the Prey tip. I'm going to look it up. I'm wondering how it knows the computer's physical location, though. There is no GPS like you'd have on a smartphone or tablet. From the IP, maybe? That would seem to be rather imprecise.

[VitaminD]

Did you do any banking, bill paying, or anything involving finances or your identity on that PC? If so you may want to look into changing those passwords and watching those accounts..

[bbaggins]

I have never done online banking - don't trust it - but some companies pretty much make it impossible to interact with them any other way, my insurance company being one. I changed all my passwords, closed my credit cards, put a watch flag on my bank account. What a PIA!

One bright spot in all this is I've just ordered a Korg Kronos, and that's pretty exciting. Hopefully, the insurance will cover it! Where I will stash the synth when it comes, I'm not sure. I guess I will sleep with it chained to my ankle.

[VitaminD]

Ok good deal then... got all that taken care of.

I'd probably want to install motion detecting HD video cameras inside the music room with WIFI/networked recording out to the interwebs securely. Then, even if they get in you have some footage of them in your house and timestamped.

When you get the Korg, I'd stash the box.. don't leave it in your trash or on the curb.. and definitely take a photo of the serial number dated and keep that someplace safe (away from sticky fingers).

Pretty rough experience.. I'd be more upset at them being in my home unwanted than even taking all my stuff. What if you were in the home at the time?? yikes.

[ATN69]

Thanks for the Prey tip. I'm going to look it up. I'm wondering how it knows the computer's physical location, though. There is no GPS like you'd have on a smartphone or tablet. From the IP, maybe? That would seem to be rather imprecise.

The limitation of most trackers is of course that the computer must come online. Prey use the current IP-address to reveal its position. If the thief decide to format the harddrive and reinstall Windows before going online with the computer then I think no such tracker will work and that's why I also registered my CPU with Intel. It can't quickly give me a location of the computer but no thief can remove that intel reg. So it is possible even with a newly installed Windows, to access the stolen computer remote and make it useless. At least that will protect your personal files. Then again, many thieves are kind of stupid, and not any brilliant computer experts, so I have high hopes that Prey will work. Prey is invisible and no one can see it is installed in your computer.

[llze]

how would that protect your personal files in any way? Just plug in the harddrives to a new computer and there are the files, aren't they?

[ATN69]

If someone really want to get a hold of your files there is no stopping it, but why make it easy for them?
For sure you can password protect your files and folders on the harddrive so even if it is moved it will not be a quick access for anyone.