joshua kaufman had installed theft-tracking software... photos of the man using his co a man was arrested. joshua kaufman had installed theft tracking software that actually took photos of the man using his computer after it was stolen. this man here. kaufman says police initially showed no interest in the case, so he then started a blog called, this guy has my macbook and posted all these photos online. >> i think people were, uhm, surprised and amazed that software like this existed. a lot of people don't know that it's out there and available. and a lot of people were entertained by the photos, thought it was funny. a lot of people were just cheering me on. they wanted some action to happen. they wanted the police to do something about it. >> well, it worked. after media contacted police, kaufman got the action he wanted. officers arrested the man on tuesday and he is due to be arraigned tomorrow. >> i love that story. >>> a business website has done a little digging to come up with a list of the first people to ever sign up for faceboo

---"joshua kaufman" haÍa instalado en su computadora un programa que tomaba las fotos de quien la usaran14.com". ---si tiene parientes que estan de visita, o si tiene planes de recorrer san francisco en los proximos dias, le avisamos que una de las principales atracciones turisticas de la ciudad esta fuera de servicio.---todas las Íneas de los llamados "cable cars" estaran cerradas desde hoy y hasta el domingo.---la Íneas "powell mason", "powell hyde" y "california" no estaran funcionando, para poder darles mantenimiento a las vias y a los cables que pasan debajo de ellas.---los autobuses del "muni" cubriran todas las rutas para seguir transportando al publico por la zona, aunque el viaje no sera tan pintoresco.

joshua kaufman had installed it on his mac book before someone broke into his apartment two months ago stoled it. he reported the theft to police but wrote on his blog "they couldn't help me due to a lack of resources.." opd says the department has to prioritize the cases given the large caseloads. >>> we have about 2400 theft reports coming through our system every single month. we have three theft investigators tasked with handling all of those. >> unwilling to throw up his hands in despair kaufman turned to internet. he posted the picks and yesterday it got the attention of oakland police. using evidence collected with the software which included an e-mail to a cab company where the suspect worked, the police last night arranged for a pick- up here on alice street. the man behind the was the man behind the computer. 27-year-old aldabashi. redemption who blocked arrested. an oakland police officer just called me to let me know they arrested the man in my photos. another case of people not police tracking down their stolen property. and that alleged computer thief is expected to be ar

joshua kaufman had installed it on his mac book before someone broke into his apartment two months ago and stoled it. he reported the theft to police but wrote on his blog "they couldn't help me due to a lack of resources.." opd says the department has to prioritize the cases given the large caseloads. >>> we have about 2400 theft reports coming through our system every single month. we have three theft investigators tasked with handling all of those. >> unwilling to throw up his hands in despair kaufman turned to internet. he posted the picks and yesterday it got the attention of oakland police. using evidence collected with the software which included an e-mail to a cab company where the suspect worked, the police last night arranged for a pick- up here on alice street. the man behind the wheel was the man behind the computer. 27-year-old aldabashi. redemption who blocked arrested. an oakland police officer just called me to let me know they arrested the man in my photos. another case of people not police tracking down their stolen property. and that alleged computer thief is expecte

joshua kaufman. he went to the police. but he also went to us, with a high-tech sting.case, with private eyes in oakland. take a look. >> reporter: joshua kaufman had his laptop stolen. he got angry. really angry. especially when the tracking software he installed on it, kept taunting him, broadcasting pictures from the screen. someone staring into the screen of joshua's computer. and, yikes. web surfing in bed. >> my thought was, i don't really want to know what's going on here. what he's doing. that's kind of creepy. >> reporter: what the guy wasn't doing was worrying about the police. you would think, if you caught the guy red-handed stealing your stuff, you had photos of him, knew where he lived, even where he worked, that the cops would say, hey. thanks for the freebie. and go pick him up, right? but when josh followed up. >> they had a lot of people to deal with. >> reporter: he waited. two months. then, nothing. >> i thought, why not create a blog. >> reporter: joshua's blog and his bad guy slide show went viral. >> it exploded on twitter and facebook. >> reporte

joshua kaufman, whose laptop was stolen in march. that afternoon, he turned on hidden security software he had installed. sure enough, a matter of days, it started taking pictures of the computer user, logging the man's computer use, where he was using the laptop. kaufman started a blog called, hey this guy has my macbook, attracting ate tens of thousands of people, including the oakland police. >> i tweeted on my blog and immediately had thousands of tweets and likes and spread through the internet like wildfire and oakland police called me and said they were going to do something about it. >> kaufman had had learned the suspect, and remember at this point, only a suspect, worked as a driver so police called for a ride and arrested the man on the spot. now, kaufman has his computer back. >>> coming up, candidates are lining up for the 2012 presidential race. we will tell you who just ahead. >>> plus -- >> people talk about water but we are stuck in the ice ag he p don put the skis away yet. plenty of fresh powder still falling in th

. >> reporter: when joshua kaufman tweeted this photo of an oakland police officer handing him back hiswas the end of a cat and mouse game that went on for three months. oakland police say that laptops are sell doll returned. in fact, this case was initially filed away, too. until police had another look and realized it was different. >> this victim had all of this information, including photographs and had trianglated using the software where he believes the computer was. >> reporter: that's right, heing in front of thes one, of computer. they were taken by a security program called hidden, that tracks stolen laptops and sends back photos from the built-in camera. screen shots and even the computer's location. the man who invented the program says he came up with the idea when his own computer disappeared. >> and the police were unable to help me. there was nothing they could do to recover it. and so, we sat down, me and colleagues and put our heads together. and came up with ideas. >> rep paired with st photos, paired with screen shots containing personal information, can quickly lead

joshua kaufman had installed >>> an oak man goes high-tech -- an oakland man goes high- tech to helpust a burglar. he had tracking software that took photos of the man using his computer after it was stolen. police initially showed no interest in this case. so he started a blog called, this guy has my macbook! and posted those photos online. >> i think people were surprised and amazed that software like this existed. a lot of people don't know it's out there and available. a lot of people were just entertained by the photos and thought it was funny. a lot of people were just cheering me on. they wanted some action to happen. they wanted the police to do something about it. >> well, it did happen. after media contacted police, kaufman got the action he wanted. officers arrested the man tuesday. he is due to be arraigned tomorrow. >>> google is warning users to change their email passwords. that's after computer hackers in china broke into gmail attacks. the super attack hit hundreds of accounts including those belonging to senior government officials and political activists. google be

. >> reporter: joshua kaufman hasn't held his laptop since march 21st. that's when someone stole it from his oakland apartment. but kaufman had installed security software called hidden. and when his laptop vanished on a monday, he turned it on. >> i activated the software. i didn't say anything for several days. and then on thursday, i started getting images and location data back. >> reporter: images like this. these are pictures of someone using his stolen computer. when it was on, kaufman's computer snapped a picture every 15 minutes. hidden showed him what the user was looking at. it even provided an proximate location. on april 25th, kaufman gave oakland police a file full of information about the suspect. >> basically gave them a large print-out of photos and location information and the e-mail and possible business address. a lot of information that could have taken them directly to the person that had it. >> reporter: but kaufman said police told them they didn't have the resources to look into it. he turned to the internet setting up a tumbler

. >> when joshua kaufman tweeted this photo of an oakland police officer handing him back his stolen laptop, it was the end of a game going on for three months. >> the software is undetectible and he doesn't know it's there. >> that's right. photographs like this one, of the man police arrested sleeping in front of the computer and this photo of the same man using the computer without his shift off. pictures were taken by a security program called hidden that tracks stolen laptops and sends back photos from the built-in camera along with shots what is on the screen and computer's location. the man that invented it he came up with the idea when his own computer disappeared. >> it was stolen years ago in london. there was nothing they could do to recover it. >> they say laptops like this one are reported stolen all the time and almost never returned. police don't have any reel real leads to arrest anyone. this case was filed away too but police had another look and realized it was different. >> including photographs, where he believes the computer was. >> you have facebook they are usi

when joshua kaufman tweeted a picture of a laptop back, it was the end of a game that had gone on fornning in the background is undetectible and he doesn't know its there. >> that is right. photographs like this one, the man police arrested sleeping in front of the computer and this photo of the same man using the computer without his shirt on. >> the pictures were taken by a security program called hidden, that tracks stolen laptops and sends back photos from the built in camera along with shots on the screen and the computer's location. the man that invented he came up with the idea when his own computer disappeared. >> mine was stolen years ago in london. police said there was nothing they could do to recover it. >> to have all this information, including photographs and triangulated where he believed the computer was. >> it didn't track down the man who admitted he bought the laptop knowing it was stolen. >> we conducted an undercover operation and within two hours we were able to arrest the suspect. >> police say all he a limo driver and lured them to meet him in his town car. he

this is what joshua kaufman told us. because i was frustrated, and i wanted my story to get more media attention, hoping it would cause the police to act. >> well, kaufman's strategy worked because, guess what? the police department started getting calls from the media. it prompted them to take action. they basically had a complete profile of who this guy was. they launched a little bit of an undercover operation. they arrested the suspect. guess what? joshua kaufman got his laptop back. carol? >> the guy was in his bed. that's just unbelievable. i'm glad the media helped him to get police to act. dan simon, many thanks. that was a great story. let's throw it over to suzanne malveaux right now. i'll join you in a couple minutes to talk about mitt romney, who's expected to make his big announcement to run for president. can he win? we'll explore that. >> thank you, carol. >>> live from studio 7, i'm suzanne malveaux. want to get you up to speed for thursday, june 2nd. >> it's a tornado. tornado!

but joshua kaufman knew something the thief didn't.led hidden. it secretly takes screen graphs, pin points the computer's location, and snaps photos. >> when you saw that first image pop up, what did you think? >> i was amazed and impressed that it was working. i never really tested it out so i didn't know if it was going to work or not. >> reporter: it worked. the app began streaming images of the man in possession of kaufman's laptop. he could view the images by logging in to his hidden app.com account on any computer. >> i was thinking this sucks. someone has my computer and is deleting all my stuff. nothing i can do about it. >> reporter: one moment he's in a car, shirtless in bed, or even sleeping on the couch. >> people sleep in front of their computers probably all the time, but they don't realize they're being captured on camera. >> reporter: kaufman presented the data to an oakland detective, but in a high-crime city like oakland, stolen laptops are hardly a priority. >> his first response was i hate to be the one to tell you

joshua kaufman was able to track it's movement and report shots from the webcam.e san mateo bridge, a smooth drive between the peninsula, you can see 101 or at least the side of the peninsula. and coming into the city, no major issues. christina's got a look at your forecast. >>> we have got a lot of rain on the way, even though it's still mostly cloudy over the most of the bay area, rain moves in, light showers first then heavy rain spreads along the coast friday night all the way through sunday morning, so it's going to get very gusty around here, isolated rain and thunderstorms also. 70 in los gatos, 70 in san jose and then the rain lasts all the way through monday. >> thanks a lot, christina and thank you for joining us, the "today" show returns in about a minute, i'll be here in about a half an hour, see you then. twizzlers. the twist you can't resist. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> hey, everybody. it is finally try day friday. thanks for being with us today. are you ready for a big weekend? >> yes. always ready. >> what are you going to be