Comment by codegeek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by codegeek | Hacker News Reader

Sorry to hear this but you need to do a few things immediately if you haven't already:

1) Report your passport stolen to your nearest embassy. This is critical. Make sure this is done first

2) Report the theft to the local police and describe everything in detail as much as you can. Do it soon so that it is fresh in your mind

3) Keep an eye on sites like craigslist for sale of macbooks in the area. Yes this is pretty much a long shot but you never know. There are plenty of stupid thieves in this world and the thief might try and sell it right away.

4) Did you have any kind of tracker app on your ipad etc ? I think Apple has something right ? If yes, try and use it to locate your belongings. UPDATE: as ericcholis mentioned, you should always have an account with https://www.icloud.com and use "Find My iPhone" to track your MacBook and iPad

And yes, for all of us, PLEASE never leave anything in your car that can be seen easily. Even if you think the area is safe or who will bother stealing a backpack, think again. I always make it a point to either put things in the trunk of the car or glovebox if you must leave it in your car.

You should be able to log into iCloud.com and manage/find your devices there.

Being a dummy, I put off setting up iCloud because I was too busy with school work, thinking I would be able to set it up during break. Not anymore.

Jesus christ man, too busy to login to a fucking website and click a few buttons? We're talking like 5 minutes here. Could have saved you $3,000...

Downvoting because this comment, restating the obvious, adds nothing but kicking somebody when they're down.

No way, this is such a common sentiment among my friends and coworkers that it needed to be said. This guy was straight up lazy and he got caught with his pants down.

Words don't need to be said; words don't have needs. People sometimes could benefit from hearing words. But if you're going to be a jerk about it, then people generally aren't going to listen. Ergo, no benefit.

In this case, though, I don't think stating the obvious was anything that the original poster needed to hear. You were responding to something where he already said that he was "a dummy" and will do it differently next time.

And I think your accusation of laziness is... unevidenced. He's a college sophomore at a selective school, he's studying half-way around the world from home, he has a number of neat projects on his blog, and decided to make a cross-country trip over Thanksgiving break. And in a follow-up to a theft, he took the time to post something to help other US visitors avoid thefts in the future. That doesn't look lazy to me.

There are two kinds of feedback. The one that makes people stronger, and the one that makes people weaker.

I believe it's so much more worthwhile to be supportive. When you have any kind of an adventage over others such as when you know something better, have move experience, have more money etc., you have these two options: either use your adventages to help, or to bring down.

To ridicule is not the best method of educating others either. And a person who feels strong doesn't have to show any sign of superiority, because with true strength comes security.

I wish the author of the original question will not find it too difficult to get back on track after loosing the bag. Good luck to you.

To late now, But I have Cisco Meraki MDM setup on all of my devices. It is free, and While your average thief might know about turning off iCloud and the consumer grade find my pc apps, but might not know exactly what Meraki System Manager is . and at least on OSX and Windows once you install it, you really have to look for it.

Also, if you are seen putting valuables in it, the trunk is also fairly easy to break into.

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