14 DAY TRIAL // A University of Michigan medical student named Paul DeWolf was shot to death earlier this year, with police having few leads to the perps. But when a Macintosh computer was turned on last month, they finally got a break.
As it turned out, the laptop in question had Find My Mac installed on it. The Mac didn’t belong to the victim, but it was reported stolen around the time DeWolf was killed in what was later reported as a break-in gone bad.
The Detroit Free Press reports:
“But on Oct. 3 — 45 miles from where student Paul DeWolf was killed in his Ann Arbor fraternity — a man in Detroit attempted to log onto a computer he’d just purchased through Craigslist. The man didn’t know it, but the Mac laptop had been stolen from DeWolf’s next-door neighbor around the time he was killed.”
When the Mac booted and connected to the web, it alerted Apple’s servers of its new location, as the original owner had requested the company to keep tabs on the system via Find My Mac.
Michigan police reportedly contacted the person who bought the system off Shaquille Jones, 21, and Joei Jordan, 20.
According to the report, both men have been charged with open murder in DeWolf’s death. A third suspect was also identified in the murder, but “it remains unclear how he is tied to the case.”
The “Find My” service from Apple covers not only MacBooks, but even desktops like the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro, as well as any of the company’s range of iDevices, such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
“You take your devices everywhere. Which means you might leave them anywhere. Whether they’re at the office in a conference room or under a pillow on your couch, with Find My iPhone, chances are they won’t be lost for long,” the company’s marketing reads.
Anyone can use Find My iPhone / Find My Mac on someone else’s computer to track their stolen device on a map. The service, along with other iCloud services (like Photo Stream) has helped pinpoint dozens, if not hundreds of stolen devices worldwide.