Macbook convascated by Apple Store - Advice Please

jakiphoto

My partner bought his laptop 2 years ago, second hand from gumtree. He has been in to the apple store several times to get various things fixed/upgraded on it. Now last week he went in and they told him that the laptop had been stolen from themselves (i think they said it has been ex-display model) and they made shop security come over to make sure he wouldn't leave the store with the laptop. So they have taken the laptop of him, given him a letter to explain why its been taken away and told him to wait for the police to get in touch with him later that day - its now been 7 days and the police havent been in touch - the person who took the laptop away doesn't have any information about who to call at apple or the police. Has anyone had a similar experience or have any advice? are they allowed to take the laptop off you without a full police report?

any help is much appreciated

shakeitright

Has he not been in touch with the police,I know I would have in the same circumstances.

jakiphoto

not yet - only cause he was told the police would get in touch with us

shakeitright

I wouldnt have left the shop without calling the police.I really dont know what to suggest,maybe somebody else will be along who can advise you.

pinkshoes

Call 101 and report that the shop has stolen the laptop.

Did they provide proof that they owned it? Had they claimed on their insurance? If not, why not? I'd go back and demand to see all this proof, otherwise you should demand the laptop back. They've had 7 days to get their proof together.

jacques_chirac

pinkshoes wrote: »

Call 101 and report that the shop has stolen the laptop.

Did they provide proof that they owned it? Had they claimed on their insurance? If not, why not? I'd go back and demand to see all this proof, otherwise you should demand the laptop back. They've had 7 days to get their proof together.

No, call 101 and tell them what has happened, and ask if they know who is dealing with it. No point in shouting 'theft' when that doesn't tell the whole story.

jakiphoto

thank you, we will call 101 in the morning and then take it from there, will let you know the outcome.

Jakg

pinkshoes wrote: »

Had they claimed on their insurance? If not, why not?

I would be surprised if they would be insured for this sort of thing - theft happens, premiums for theft insurance would be massive for the insurer to make any money and it'd be too expensive overall.

cookie365

And a stolen computer is a stolen computer, even if they've received an insurance payout. Their insurer will expect them to take reasonable steps to mitigate the loss.

DevCoder

They will also forensic the hard drive (amazing what survives a simple repartition even on a mac journaled file system) to see if they can trace the thiefs details.

Takes about 2 hours with decent forensic tools. 1 hour 30 of which is unattended.

browneyedbazzi

Does your partner have proof that he paid for the laptop? A receipt or some form of written confirmation saying who he got it from and that he paid for it? If he does, then once the investigations are complete the laptop will probably be returned to him.

When buying things off gumtree or similar (especially high value items) it is really worth asking the seller to show you receipts to prove they bought the item and if possible get copies of them....doing this will vastly reduce the likelihood of unknowingly buying stolen property.