Kariem McFarlin, 35, broke into the house of the late Steve Jobs in July last year, while the house was being renovated. He entered the house through it’s garage, and apparently stole three iPads, two iMacs, one Apple TV box, a diamond necklace along with various other items. He was arrested in August last year, by the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, consisting of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
The REACT team got help from Apple’s security investigators, as they could access to the company’s main system. With the serial numbers of the stolen devices, the company could track the activity of the stolen devices, and they found that one of the stolen iPads had connected to Apple’s servers after the burglary. It was trying to re-install its operating system, connecting from an AT&T U-verse Internet IP address on July 18.
Another iPad soon connected to the Apple servers soon after, but it wasn’t a stolen one. The REACT team and Apple’s team tracked the iPads activity for a while. After 5 days, the team recorded activity on McFarlin’s iTunes account, that was linked to the first iPad that connected to Apple’s servers, a second iPad that was stolen, and an iMac that also, was stolen. After investigating the Wi-Fi network in the area around McFarlin’s apartment, when the police entered his apartment on August 2, they discovered one of the stolen iMac’s on the kitchen table. The other stolen products were recovered from McFarlin’s associates. McFarlin told the police that he had sold the jewelry to a dealer in Pennsylvania.
Keven McFarlin has now been sentenced to seven years in a California state prison.