Laptop thieves unknowingly give themselves away

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Story Published: Oct 3, 2007 at 11:13 PM PDT

Story Updated: Oct 3, 2007 at 11:30 PM PDT

By KOMO Staff

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LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- A pair of brazen thieves thought they had pulled a fast one after stealing several computers. But what they didn't realize at the time was that one of those computers was rigged.

Thieves broke into Mike Pierson's car and stole his laptop while he ran into a Lynnwood shoe store for less than half an hour.

"First emotion was kind of like a feeling of violation because my personal property, space has been invaded," he said.

But then Pierson remembered that the thieves would pay.

Hidden inside Pierson's laptop was LoJack for Laptops, a program specifically designed to track stolen computers.

When the thieves accessed the Internet using the laptop, the software company tracked down their location by using the IP address and the phone number used for the connection. And that allowed police to obtain screen shots with enough information to lead them straight to the suspects.

"The laptop never would have been recovered, the thieves never would have been caught. Who knows how many countless victims there would have been?" Pierson said. "They did expect to get away with a crime and I'm glad that there was this secret eye that was watching them the whole time."

Lynnwood police arrested two people, who now face fraud and identity theft charges. Police said both people arrested had a prior criminal history, but it is not known whether they had been convicted of similar charges.

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