Spyware helps police find laptop
A father’s decision to spy on his son’s Internet surfing helped police solve a Coronado hotel burglary and arrest two National City men this month, police said. The case began July 3 when a Huntington Beach man reported the theft of his 17-year-old son’s shoulder bag. Inside was $2,400 worth of electronic equipment, including a laptop computer, a Nintendo video game system and an iPod music player, said Detective Joe Oliver of the Coronado Police Department. The man and his family had been staying at a Coronado hotel on Orange Avenue near Adella Avenue. They went to a Padres game at Petco Park and when they got back about 10:15 p.m., the bag was missing. Two months later, the father called police again to report receiving e-mail messages from a spyware program he had bought before the theft to monitor his son’s Internet activity. It worked like a charm. When the thieves turned on the laptop and began visiting Web sites, the dad was notified.