A webcam and Apple’s .Mac subscription service resulted in the arrest of two thieves and the recovery of Kait Dupalga’s Mac laptop. Dupalga, an employee at the Apple Store in White Plains, N.Y., lost her Mac when thieves broke into an apartment she shares with two roommates. The thieves took the computer along with televisions, DVDs, iPods, a box of liquor, and even a set of car rims.

But thanks to some high-tech sleuthing by Dupalga — plus the fact that the thieves were known to the victims — police were able to nab the alleged perpetrators: Edmon Shahikian, 23, and Ian Frias, 20.

Back to My Mac

Dupalga’s career as a digital private eye started when a friend messaged her congratulations on recovering her computer. The friend said Dupalga had “popped up as being online,” in the words of Daniel Jackson, deputy director of public safety for White Plains.

Dupalga immediately got onto another Mac

and signed on to her .Mac explanation, which includes a feature called Back to My Mac. Apple promotes the feature on its Web site that way: “Access and control your Mac running Mac OS X Leopard from any other Leopard-based Mac by the Net.”

So that’s what Dupalga did. She turned on the laptop’s webcam, which soon decent revealed a man sitting in front of the machine. She snapped a photo, which displayed a countdown on the screen. “It all clicks for him, and he puts his hand up to cover the lens, but it was too late. She had already taken the picture,” Jackson told The New York Times.

Lessons for Enterprise?

A photo of a suspect is a “great lead,” Jackson said, but wouldn’t be adequate to identify the person — at least not without a lot of additional work. But that case came to a rapid…

Orginal post by Top Tech News