Story Archive

The Last Laugh

Stu Gale of Cochrane, Alta., Canada, was working at his computer when he got an alert that someone logged in to his laptop — which had been stolen from his car a couple of days before. The “computer security and automation expert” quickly logged in to the machine remotely, and the woman using it kept closing the pop-up saying he was there. “Eventually she went to the bathroom and I went through her profile,” he says — she had logged in to Facebook. “I went through and got her phone numbers [and] friends list.” When the woman got back from the bathroom and saw what he was doing, she quickly shut the computer down — but he could still talk to her. “I sent a text to all her numbers saying, ‘I’ll go to the RCMP and I’ll make you famous.’” He did go to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the woman, who saw she was getting “famous” on a local Facebook group where Gale had posted her photos, shut down her Facebook account. The police had no comment. “I’m realistic,” Gale says. “I’m not going to see that computer again. But at least I got some comic relief.” (RC/Calgary Herald) ...I remember when “computer security experts” were smart enough to have a power-up password on their laptops.