Recovery Guide

If your Laptop is stolen:

1. File a police report with your local authorities, and let them know that you have tracking software installed on the stolen laptop and that you will give them the IP address as soon as they thief uses the laptop to connect to the internet.
2. Log into your account often and check the reports until you see a new IP address show up.
3. Gather as much information as you can about the IP address before calling the police so they will be more likely to help you. You are specifically looking for what ISP (like Comcast, Verizon, or AOL) is in control of that IP address. Try these links:
   http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/
   OR
   http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/lookup-results
4. If you find that the IP address is within your school or business, call your IT department and work with them directly.
5. Provide the police with the IP address, ISP, and the exact time and date that the IP address was used (from your yoyo reports). The local police can subpoena the ISP for the information of which of their users had that IP address at that date and time. The police can then visit that address to recover the laptop or call the appropriate authorities if it is in a different location.

If you have trouble getting the local police to help, try the sheriff's office. Also, here is a helpful post that we found online:

• I'm a cybercrimes detective and computer forensics examiner in a Sheriff's Department and do this all the time. It simply requires a subpoena to the ISP that the IP address returns to. If the campus police and city police won't do it, try your county or state police agencies (both which also have jurisdiction). In my state, all police officers have power anywhere in the state and I could "technically" investigate and/or charge anyone with a crime anywhere in the state. We just don't typically do this because it's stepping on each other's toes. As a county officer though, I frequently investigate crimes involving cases inside city or town limits if that agency doesn't have the capability. If the IP address ends up being from another state, we just contact the local police there to ask for their assistance.
  
  Keep asking and ask to talk to a supervisor if they are not helping as much as you would like. While there is no obligation from a police agency to necessarily do everything they can on a property crime, most department heads will do what they can to keep the public happy.
  
  Like others have said though, you may simply get a return to a campus, business, or open wireless network.
  
  Good luck.

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