On March 28, 2011, my MacBook was stolen on board of Malaysia Airlines flight MH53, in just 30 seconds, right after it landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a 3 hour transit before continuing the flight to Melbourne, Australia, where I live. I reported the crime to Malaysia Airlines Lost & Found department during transit, and later to Kuala Lumpur International Airport police station (officer Hamid and Sergeant Mazni) via several phone calls from Melbourne.
Meanwhile, my MacBook has the awesome Orbicule Undercover installed. After waiting for months for the MacBook to be connected to the Internet, it finally happened on June 1, 2011, and Orbicule captured an iSight photo of the person (it's an uncle!) using my MacBook. I emailed the photo to officer Hamid along with the IP address and the Internet Service Provider used by this uncle, Packet One Networks Sdn. Bhd. . Please kindly note that this uncle might be an innocent victim who unknowingly purchased the stolen laptop from the thief.
The last email I received from the police was on May 3, 2011, and the following few emails with the leads I sent them went unreplied. If you live in or know anyone from Kuala Lumpur, please help me by spreading the word. If you can identify this uncle please kindly let him know that he was using my MacBook, or contact KLIA police station, or email me and I'll forward your email to officer Hamid.
This is 100% real, not a viral marketing ploy. My name is Cliffano Subagio, I have a blog and a twitter account.
FYI, the term uncle is used by South-East Asians to describe a midle-aged guy. This guy is not my uncle. ps: This tumblelog is inspired by This Guy Has My MacBook, who got the MacBook back.
First Message To Uncle, No Luck
Another sign of life one week before Christmas, the laptop was connected to the Internet, still from Kuala Lumpur…
Date/TimeExternal IPInternal IP
2011-12-19 11:57:55 -0700221.133.45.19410.130.2.51
2011-12-19 11:55:50 -0700221.133.45.19410.130.2.51
But this time, I set Orbicule to display a message to Uncle right after logging in:
This Mac was stolen, identifying information about you and your location has already been gathered, check out http://thisunclehasmymacbook.tumblr.com . Please contact <email> for instructions on how to return this computer. You will receive a reward if this computer is returned.
No luck :(.
It’s Still Alive
My stolen MacBook is still alive, and it was connected to the Internet again about half an hour ago. So whoever is using it now, apparently it hasn’t been used much at all!
Here’s the Orbicule log:
Date/TimeExternal IPInternalIP
2011-09-16 22:22:09 +1000180.74.251.16110.1.1.5
2011-09-16 22:20:42 +1000180.74.251.16110.1.1.5
And the IP address is resolved to:
inetnum: 180.72.0.0 - 180.75.255.255 netname: P1NETWORKS-MY descr: Packet One Networks (M) Sdn descr: Internet Service Provider descr: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia country: MY
So it is still in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Still no reply from the Malaysian police. Sigh, the IP address and camera capture should be enough to identify the person who has my MacBook.
Hello hello Malaysia! Malaysia Boleh?
Progress Update
So it has been 3.5 months since the last email from KLIA police station (officer Hamid and sergeant Mazni), I’ve sent several emails since, and there has been no reply from them. Rather disappointing.
There’s a bit of hope though. I contacted Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and they suggested me to contact CyberSecurity Malaysia, who finally replied my email on July 12th, 2011, stating that they’ve escalated my case to Commercial Crime Division of Bukit Aman Police Station in Kuala Lumpur.
So now I have a case number. Yay!
I’ve emailed the Commercial Crime Division and sent them all of the information I have about the case: photos, screen captures, and logged IP addresses.
Internet, help me?
This is the uncle who has my MacBook. Remember, he might be an innocent victim who unknowingly purchased the stolen laptop from the thief. Please be nice.
The IP call log screenshot on Orbicule Undercover Center dashboard. The first three connections to the Internet were short ones on April 27, 2011, but unfortunately they weren’t long enough for iSight to capture any photo. The connections on June 1, 2011, finally sent a screen capture and an iSight photo.
Uncle, you can check the serial number of my MacBook against the serial number on the photo above. I blurred the last four characters. You can also contact Apple resellers in Kuala Lumpur, they’ll be able to verify that the MacBook was reported as stolen.
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
