Theft of a Computer

[anoneemus]

Someone my dad knows bought a dell laptop, he did my dad a favor and asked him if I could look at the laptop because it had a bios password on it. I couldn't find anyway around it so I got on dell.com and went into an online chat and asked if they could give me a master password for the bios and gave the service tag number which connects the laptop to the info of whoever bought it.I used a fake email address and name and as soon as they wanted my phone number and things to verify an account I closed the browser because I realized it could be stolen. I don't know if it is, but if it is, and it came out in 2006 will dell try to use my ip address to find me? I pulled out the hardrive and looked on it and saw some power points with 2007 in the filename so I am assuming if it was stolen it was sometime in 2007. I looked around and it looks like the statute of limitations on petty theft is 2 yrs in florida where I live and that petty theft is anything worth $400 or less? I looked on ebay and the laptop sells for between $250 and $500. Do they go off the retail value when it was new or the current value to determine petty theft? If I gave the laptop back to the guy can they still charge me with something? I would think they only nail the person in posession of the object. And does anyone know if dell would bother with a 3 yr old laptop if it has been flagged stolen in their system? again I am not sure if it was reported stolen I only typed like 2 sentences in the chat and then left. How hard would it be for cops to find out where I live from comcast with something minor like this? Am I over worrying. I mean I didn't steal the stupid thing I just looked at it and told em I can't fix it...

[Mr. Knowitall]

If the computer was stolen, and Dell was tracking its use following a report of the theft, you can expect Dell to turn whatever information they obtained over to law enforcement.

[cyjeff]

Did you tell the person that just bought it that there is a very good chance it was stolen... and that there was still data on the hard drive?

The information in a laptop can be worth several times the equipment value.... I would think the "owner" would want to know.

[Scruit]

Why on earth would you interpret Dell asking for a phone number as being indicative of a stolen laptop? I deal with Dell support a lot and that's just what they do.

If that's the only reason you think the laptop is stolen then you should quit being paranoid. They always ask for name/phone/email (every time I talk to them they reconfirm mine, even though they already have it!) and especially if the name you gave them doesn't match their records - they want their record to be accurate.

If you KNOW the laptop is stolen because of some other information beyond that which is posted herein (I am VERY suspicious about you using a false name!) then you ARE committing a crime, that is of being in possession of stolen property. Any statute of limitations would most likely start running when you had both possession AND knowledge that the laptop was stolen. The date the laptop was stolen may start the countdown for a theft charge, but not a possession charge.

The value of the laptop can be determined in a couple different ways based upon the exact wording of your state law.

- In Ohio, a computer stolen from a person and used only for personal reasons is worth the used market value of the laptop at the time of the theft (market value is the expected value at which a person would willingly buy, and another person would willingly buy, if neither person is under any unusual pressure to buy/sell). That is, a few hundred dollars maybe.
- If the computer was stolen from a business or a person and it had been used in the furtherance of a business, and it was still functional and could still be used for the business at the time of theft, then the value is the new replacement cost of the equivalent item regardless of it's actual condition. That can be a couple thousand dollars - well into felony territory. Powerpoint / Project etc are applications that suggest a business use. Same with Notes, SQLServer and other software that is generally not used by an individual on a personal computer.

So, if you had specific knowledge that the laptop was stolen and you still willingly worked on it, and it was stolen from a business, and your state is as business-friendly as Ohio, then you could be charged with a felony, and the clock only just started ticking.

If you had no reason to believe the laptop was stolen and you just suspect it, and you returned it to the person who gave it to you immediately, then you're probably ok. I'd still wonder why you gave a false name/address to Dell - did you think they didn't have your IP? Which goes to your ISP? For which your ISP will give up the account holder's address in a heartbeat in the face of a court order if Dell reports that someone tried to use a stolen service tag #?