Pretty sure he's screwed...lost MacBook

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Sep 17, 2012
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I worked on a MacBook a couple months back. It had a dead SSD, and since it was done aftermarket, Apple wouldn't repair it, so it had to be sent in for RMA.

In the mean time, the owner bought one of the new MacBook Airs, and had me just format this when it came back in to give to his kid for college. I formatted it, but didn't register it or set it up with iTunes or the App Store or anything like that, as I didn't know his kid's name, email, password, etc.

This week, while they were moving her into the dorms, the MacBook was stolen. It hadn't even been turned on from the point I'd stopped working on it, so no new registration info would have been put on there.

Any chance it'd be able to be found through a Find My Mac type of thing, or does the fact it was never registered after the new drive was put in basically make this thing gone forever?



Sorry, I'm more of a PC guy, not sure what the limitations are on the Mac side. I know a PC is as good as gone at this point, and advised the owner to just go buy a new MBA...and a Kensington lock. But, he wants me to do my due diligence to try to help him.
 
Yup. If he has the serial number he can report it to local authorities and maybe campus security.
 
Find my Mac only works after you have logged in to you Apple account.

If you have the serial number you can report it to Apple and if it ever gets brought in for services they will contact him.

If you have the MAC address then you can report that to campus security and if it is conected to the campus network they will be able to find it.
 
If you have the MAC address then you can report that to campus security and if it is conected to the campus network they will be able to find it.

This....presuming that the thief is stupid enough not to change the MAC, which isn't that much of a presumption.
 
It's already on craigslist and most likely sold, lets be honest.

If it was stolen on a college campus as the OP says....probably not, I'd wager my money.

If the thief was just looking to flip the hardware yes...but on a college campus, kids "have to have" Apple toys, and their laptops ain't cheap-and normally they don't flip hardware. Stolen on a college campus, my bet is it hasn't left the campus yet.
 
If you have the MAC address then you can report that to campus security and if it is conected to the campus network they will be able to find it.

This would also be my suggestion. Criminals are not always the brightest. It may still be in the area.
 
If you have the serial number you can report it to Apple and if it ever gets brought in for services they will contact him.
No they wont. If you call Apple to report it stolen Apple will tell you to report it stolen to the police and to try to use iCloud to locate it. Apple doesn't track stolen devices. (I work for apple and deal with these calls quite a bit)

Then what? Will the Genius bar guy confiscate it?

The genius bar guy will help the person out. Apple doesn't police stolen devices because apple has no way of knowing if the person that brought in a device actually stole the device.
 
No they wont.

ouch. kind of sad, but it makes sense. You wouldn't want to accuse random customers as thiefs since anyone can report serials or macs as stolen.

I do think if a police report is made and presented to apple they should at least block service to stolen devises if there is enough evidence of ownership (receipt, registration...). If I bought an ipod on ebay, brought it to apple and they said it was stolen, I wouldn't be mad at apple, just the crap who sold it to me if that makes sense. I would be upset if they took it from me though.
 
If it was stolen on a college campus as the OP says....probably not, I'd wager my money.

If the thief was just looking to flip the hardware yes...but on a college campus, kids "have to have" Apple toys, and their laptops ain't cheap-and normally they don't flip hardware. Stolen on a college campus, my bet is it hasn't left the campus yet.

Reminds me of this....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oB28ksiIo
 
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