From our SETI.Germany Blog:
Computer theft solved thanks to BOINC

The thief could not have anticipated this when stealing the iMac 27 of our member CR62! The stolen computer was running the BOINC software which does not only support scientific projects but, as it turns out, is also a useful anti theft protection installation.

The iMac which was stolen from the office around 3am on August 25th was already contacting the BOINC project WUProp the next day to transfer data. The thus copied IP address was given to the police who consequently applied for a search warrant and managed to secure the iMac by September 2th.

In response to the latest success of the BOINC project Einstein@Home where volunteers donate their unused computer time to search for pulsars and gravitational waves it should be said that:
Not only was a Pulsar found but now also an iMac!!

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Computer_theft_solved_thanks_to_BOINC

---

Grüße vom Sänger

This almost qualifies for dumb crook news. You just can't tell, though, if a computer has a trace-capable prog on it; most don't. In any case, he was one unlucky thief. He should be caned... :p

---

She whom you see is Hayley Westenra. Her voice puts the seraphim to shame. Check her out... from John, her #1 fan in North Carolina...

After reading this old interesting post I was dismayed that both the seti germany and english wikinews links about this are dead; but luckily the german wikinews article was not deleted and is archived here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210413003656/https://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Computerdiebstahl_dank_BOINC_aufgekl%C3%A4rt

After reading this old interesting post I was dismayed that both the seti germany and english wikinews links about this are dead; but luckily the german wikinews article was not deleted and is archived here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210413003656/https://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Computerdiebstahl_dank_BOINC_aufgekl%C3%A4rt

That is cool!!!