Microsoft Partner Helps Police Recover Client's Stolen iPad

The quick thinking of a tech at a Boston-area Microsoft Certified Partner company helped police recover an iPad stolen from one of the firm's clients at a train station earlier in the day.

The morning of March 2, Michael McGowan, an IT Associate at NSK Inc., took a call from a client who'd had his iPad snatched from his hands while typing an e-mail as he waited for the Red Line of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. McGowan had configured the client's iPad in 2010, so he logged into Apple's MobileMe site to lock the device remotely and track it through its GPS. On the phone with MBTA Transit Police, he helped guide officers to the perpetrator's vicinity in about an hour.

I'll let NSK's press release (which is, incidentally, the most well-written news release I've seen in 20 years in journalism) tell the rest of the story:

"Once the officers were in the area, McGowan enabled the iPad's location alert. The alarm wasn't loud enough to draw the attention of the officers, but it did make the perpetrator pull the device out of his backpack, which the officers then witnessed and swiftly moved in to retrieve the device.

"To prove that the iPad was in fact the stolen property of his client, McGowan sent a message to the device that said 'This iPad is stolen property.' The officers felt this was sufficient enough evidence and they made sure to get the iPad safely back to its owner."

Posted by Scott Bekker on March 12, 2011 at 5:35 PM