Suspicious laptop

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:40:59 PM EDT

So, I bought an HP Elitebook laptop for a GREAT price. I mean, $300 OTD for an Intel Core i5 and LED display, 320 GB 7200rpm HD, etc. The only thing was it was locked, and the pawn shop people did not know what the password was. No problem, I thought. I'll just unlock it when I get home.

When I did so, what do I see but indications that the laptop was owned by a local school district. User accounts were too complicated for just a home user. A ton of domains. Big district logo as the wallpaper, etc.

Miffed that the pawn shop sold me something like that, I promptly changed the password - all of them, even the Administrator one, and returned it to the pawn shop for my money back (they gave me a one-day grace look-over period).

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:42:29 PM EDT

[#1]

If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:44:08 PM EDT

[#2]

The real question is .... Did it have any good porn on it?

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:44:29 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

The point is, I think the manager sold it knowing it was iffy - hence the price. Rather than turn it into the police and eat the cost, they'd rather pass it on to an unsuspecting customer.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:44:43 PM EDT

[#4]

Should of just thought of it as your tax dollars being returned to you.....

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:47:33 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:

Quoted:
If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

The point is, I think the manager sold it knowing it was iffy - hence the price. Rather than turn it into the police and eat the cost, they'd rather pass it on to an unsuspecting customer.

Maybe he sold it at a low price because he couldn't figure out the password and the vast majority of the population wouldn't be able to either and so it was worth less. Who knows?

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:48:28 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
The real question is .... Did it have any good porn on it?

No porn, just a bunch of videos of high school girls running track at various meets. Apparently, the prior user of the laptop was a coach maybe.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:50:40 PM EDT

[#7]

Call the cops..

If somebody robs your house, do you want them fencing your property at Mr.Assclown's house of Pawn?

Seriously....report it...

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:51:16 PM EDT

[#8]

maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:51:18 PM EDT

[#9]

From a Pawn shop, and you are suprised it is stolen.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:51:19 PM EDT

[#10]

WOW!

Something at a pawn shop stolen.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:52:32 PM EDT

[#11]

I picked up a laptop for $80.00 at the pawn shop because of the password lock. Unlocked it and everything was fine. As for pawn shops, at least in California and Utah, they have to give the info to the Police to run the item and they hold it for a specific period of time. After that time, they can legally sell it and they provide you with a receipt. The receipt shows (and proves) that you legally purchased the item. Maybe it was school district surplus? Although I would think that they wipe the drives prior to sending them to salvage.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:52:42 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

Quoted:
If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

The point is, I think the manager sold it knowing it was iffy - hence the price. Rather than turn it into the police and eat the cost, they'd rather pass it on to an unsuspecting customer.

Maybe he sold it at a low price because he couldn't figure out the password and the vast majority of the population wouldn't be able to either and so it was worth less. Who knows?

Most municipalities keep a list of stolen property and many times, pawn shops are required to check all incoming items against the list. Either some scumbag sold it and hasn't reported it lost/stolen or it was genuinely stolen and the paperwork has not caught up.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:55:25 PM EDT

[#13]

It was apparently in the hands of someone who worked for the school district as a faculty member.

There were schedules of girls' track meets, and stats and such.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:55:39 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

OP might also be exposed here if the laptop had recovery software installed on it. He would be wise to report the event to the local PD and give them the password he installed.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:56:56 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:

Quoted:
If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

The point is, I think the manager sold it knowing it was iffy - hence the price. Rather than turn it into the police and eat the cost, they'd rather pass it on to an unsuspecting customer.

Maybe he sold it at a low price because he couldn't figure out the password and the vast majority of the population wouldn't be able to either and so it was worth less. Who knows?

Most municipalities keep a list of stolen property and many times, pawn shops are required to check all incoming items against the list. Either some scumbag sold it and hasn't reported it lost/stolen or it was genuinely stolen and the paperwork has not caught up.

Or it wasn't stolen at all.

Cities/Counties/School Districts sell stuff all of the time. The school district might have blown $10M in tax money and bought everyone new Macs and then they sold the old ones to employees or at auction.

I'm not saying that it's not stolen but at this point there's exactly as much evidence that it's stolen as that it's not.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:57:15 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:

maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

An i5 laptop that hadn't been wiped? Hell no!

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:57:38 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

Quoted:
maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

The thing is, the pawn shops usually do their own wipes when they put them out for sale. At least this one shop chain did. I don't know why or how the HP fell through the cracks.

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:57:51 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:

Quoted:

maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:59:00 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:

Quoted:
maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

The thing is, the pawn shops usually do their own wipes when they put them out for sale. At least this one shop chain did. I don't know why or how the HP fell through the cracks.

Why don't you just call the school district on Monday and ask if they have any laptops missing?

Posted: 8/13/2011 2:59:30 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:

Quoted:
maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

It wasn't wiped by the pawn shop because they couldn't figure out how to unlock the computer. As to why they would take such a laptop in the first place, I bet that employee no longer works there.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:02:21 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:

Quoted:

maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

It wasn't wiped by the pawn shop because they couldn't figure out how to unlock the computer. As to why they would take such a laptop in the first place, I bet that employee no longer works there.

You don't need to unlock it, just boot to DBAN. Unless there is a BIOS password.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:03:38 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

Quoted:
maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

It wasn't wiped by the pawn shop because they couldn't figure out how to unlock the computer. As to why they would take such a laptop in the first place, I bet that employee no longer works there.

Unless there is a BIOS password.

There is now.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:06:36 PM EDT

[#23]

My money says stolen laptop.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:10:47 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

Quoted:

maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

It wasn't wiped by the pawn shop because they couldn't figure out how to unlock the computer. As to why they would take such a laptop in the first place, I bet that employee no longer works there.

Unless there is a BIOS password.

There is now.

it takes all of 5 seconds to unlock that without a code

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:13:49 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:

Quoted:
maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

It wasn't wiped by the pawn shop because they couldn't figure out how to unlock the computer. As to why they would take such a laptop in the first place, I bet that employee no longer works there.

Unless there is a BIOS password.

There is now.

it takes all of 5 seconds to unlock that without a code

For Administrator BIOS pw?

and we ARE talking about pawn shop employees here...LOL

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:14:11 PM EDT

[#26]

Paranoid much?

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:14:31 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:

Quoted:

maybe it wasn't stolen but disposed of by a district employee?

Any school district would require either removal of a drive or a solid wipe. The odds are squarely for the laptop being stolen.

There could be any number of reasons the hard drive wasn't removed/wiped, but if I were a betting man, I'd have to go with the laptop being stolen..

It wasn't wiped by the pawn shop because they couldn't figure out how to unlock the computer. As to why they would take such a laptop in the first place, I bet that employee no longer works there.

Unless there is a BIOS password.

There is now.

it takes all of 5 seconds to unlock that without a code

Not on a laptop, you don't know what you're talking about.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:15:40 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:

Quoted:
If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

The point is, I think the manager sold it knowing it was iffy - hence the price. Rather than turn it into the police and eat the cost, they'd rather pass it on to an unsuspecting customer.

Still should notify the cops. Otherwise someone else is going to get burned on it.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:15:44 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Paranoid much?

I also didn't like the HP Elitebook display - it was far inferior to my Thinkpad T400 display.

Posted: 8/13/2011 3:17:28 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:

Quoted:
If you want to do the right thing, notify the police. Shop owner must not be running his serials against the stolen property lists.

The point is, I think the manager sold it knowing it was iffy - hence the price. Rather than turn it into the police and eat the cost, they'd rather pass it on to an unsuspecting customer.

Still should notify the cops. Otherwise someone else is going to get burned on it.

No one's going to get burned on it, unless the customer buys a new HD or re-install OS (and who does that for a pawn shop laptop, the pawn shop ain't going to do it). If I report it, somebody in the pawn shop could go to jail.