# Got my laptop back from the police... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144 "2012-08-11T01:56:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/1 "2012-08-11T01:56:38Z")
Fortunately they either ignored or didn’t notice the videos of me doing sketchy (driving related) things on it. Yet they did examine it thoroughly - I’m being prosecuted for drug importation (personal use mind and in fact I have already plead guilty, sentencing is early September) and they went to the trouble of showing I was on silkroad by looking at my pagefile! And a word file in which I did a “mea culpa” of my drug use (I was actually in the process of getting support for it when I was busted - NHS waiting lists ya see ;)) is part of the evidence. Therefore I wonder what the probability of there being some kind of bug on this is, in a desperate attempt to find me doing something dodgy? I expect it to be very low… but what do y’all think? Even more intriguingly - as I was writing this OP the laptop shut itself down. But it now thinks it has 2%. When I started the thing up less than an hour ago it was at a huge battery life. One explanation could be that it is something to do with the way it was stored for a bit in gawd knows what charge. But there’s also the tin foil hat explanation… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/2 "2012-08-11T02:24:40Z")
Since you’re seeking advice/opinions, I’ll move this to our advice forum, IMHO. Please note that should the discussion turn to advocating illegal activities or providing how-tos on how to engage in illegal activities, it will be closed down. **twickster** , for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/3 "2012-08-11T02:31:07Z")
How did you get caught? (Not asking for a how-to, even if I did want one it doesn’t sound like you’re the one to ask 🆒). I have no idea about your laptop problem. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/4 "2012-08-11T02:36:17Z")
Sniffer dog picked up a package and then a watch was put on my mail. That coincided with a week I’d ordered loads of goodies on silk road. Doh! (edit: on whether i’m the one to ask - well obviously not in terms of completion, but I set a record for the strongest hash ever in the place I’m living, so that was something…) (edit2: I wonder if I should start an “ask the guy who’s going to go prison” thread nearer the time before sentencing. On the balance of probabilities I won’t be going to prison but we’re talking about something like 30% chance and if I was given “requests” then maybe I could look out for things) ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/5 "2012-08-11T02:41:13Z")
> [@Confused dart cum](#): > > I set a record for the strongest hash ever in the place I’m living… So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/6 "2012-08-11T02:42:45Z")
The other thread I could start is that I have to see a probation officer on Tuesday to make a pre-sentence report. Any questions about that? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/7 "2012-08-11T02:44:20Z")
I’m pretty sure there isn’t a bug (or more accurately any sort of keystroke logging or location tracking software) on your laptop. If you’re that worried, just format the hard drive and reload your shit. I’d also recommend if you have data security concerns, you download TrueCrypt’s free encryption software. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/8 "2012-08-11T03:54:55Z")
Batteries on the way out will typically behave just as you described with a big capacity at first that then falls off a cliff. It’s perfectly normal and unlikely to be related to any monitoring. Re monitoring software you seem to imply that you are Canadian re “NHS waiting lists” so I’m not sure what the police in your jurisdiction are allowed. I would guess the chances of monitoring software are pretty low unless they consider you to be a key to bigger fish. Having said this if I were in your position I would wipe the drive and re-install the OS without thinking twice. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/9 "2012-08-11T03:58:42Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Re monitoring software you seem to imply that you are Canadian re “NHS waiting lists” so I’m not sure what the police in your jurisdiction are allowed. I would guess the chances of monitoring software are pretty low unless they consider you to be a key to bigger fish. Having said this if I were in your position I would wipe the drive and re-install the OS without thinking twice. I would have said that references to the NHS would suggest OP is British, not Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/10 "2012-08-11T03:59:39Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Re monitoring software you seem to imply that you are Canadian re “NHS waiting lists” so I’m not sure what the police in your jurisdiction are allowed. I think new friend Confused dart cum claims to live in Jolly Olde England. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/11 "2012-08-11T05:24:26Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I think new friend Confused dart cum claims to live in Jolly Olde England. Not quite - but it’ll do as a first approximation 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/12 "2012-08-11T11:53:17Z")
> [@Confused dart cum](#): > > Even more intriguingly - as I was writing this OP the laptop shut itself down. But it now thinks it has 2%. When I started the thing up less than an hour ago it was at a huge battery life. One explanation could be that it is something to do with the way it was stored for a bit in gawd knows what charge. But there’s also the tin foil hat explanation… If your laptop was stored with the battery at a very low %age it is very bad for the battery and will greatly shorten it’s life. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/13 "2012-08-11T22:34:30Z")
> [@Confused dart cum](#): > > The other thread I could start is that I have to see a probation officer on Tuesday to make a pre-sentence report. Any questions about that? What does that involve? Is what you say likely going to impact the sentence that is imposed, or is it more of a prep session to get you oriented to what is going to happen and give them an idea of what sort of security level you’re going to be at and what services (e.g. rehab) they’ll probably be providing? Are you going to quit drugs? ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/14 "2012-08-13T18:24:10Z")
Honestly I don’t know precisely what it involves. It may be a completely unstructured hour long chat mano y mano (I would do very well at this so long as I don’t come over too cocky), it may be a highly structured interview based on pseudo-scientific psychometric babble (I will do horrificly at this due to being an honest weirdo with unusual ethical and moral positions). It’s not about preparing me for anything, at any road. It’s designed for the judge to use to sentence me. It basically contains a recommendation of sentence and the court rarely deviates from that. I am already on a “rehab” service. In fact I already had applied for it before I was raided. However if I ended up in prison I will end up on methadone! (As for your drug question - long term, of course not. The prohibition of drugs is immoral and frankly while being an opioid addict isn’t fun, I think anyone with an inquisitive who never takes hallucinogenic drugs ever in their life, now that we know there’s no such thing as an acid casualty, is a bit silly. But I may have to wait until they are legal or I move jurisdictions before considering taking them again. I don’t see myself taking an illegally obtained opiate any time soon thought - I get the good shit from the state now [and somehow that is better for taxpayers than me just paying]…) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/15 "2012-08-13T19:12:02Z")
I’d never even heard of Silk Road before this thread. It sounds incredibly risky. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/16 "2012-08-13T20:34:44Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > Honestly I don’t know precisely what it involves. It may be a completely unstructured hour long chat mano y mano (I would do very well at this so long as I don’t come over too cocky), it may be a highly structured interview based on pseudo-scientific psychometric babble (I will do horrificly at this due to being an honest weirdo with unusual ethical and moral positions). Can’t say for sure for your jurisdiction, but I’ve seen presentencing reports and here it’s mainly objective facts about your life such as psychological and medical history, relationship status, education level, employment history, and criminal history of course. It’s not stuff like “he seems kind of like a jerk” or “he seems cool”. (Mano means hand…you’re not going to do too well if you go hand to hand with him 🆒) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/17 "2012-08-13T20:39:26Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > Can’t say for sure for your jurisdiction, but I’ve seen presentencing reports and here it’s mainly objective facts about your life such as psychological and medical history, relationship status, education level, employment history, and criminal history of course. It’s not stuff like “he seems kind of like a jerk” or “he seems cool”. OP, are you being represented by an attorney? It certainly sounds like you should be, and that they ought to be giving you more information than you appear to have about what’s going to take place. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/18 "2012-08-13T20:45:23Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > OP, are you being represented by an attorney? It certainly sounds like you should be, and that they ought to be giving you more information than you appear to have about what’s going to take place. Yes, although they are £300/hour and charge 6 minutes to read an email and 6 minutes to reply. In other words asking a tiny question costs me £60. So I am leaving questions to the biggies 😃 Edit: indeed I am getting help from various sources, quite often asking the same or essentially the same question in different places. I’m sure if you tried you could probably find another couple of threads about this online. You could DEFINITELY find them if you knew the exact juristriction. Note: that is not a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/19 "2012-08-15T19:20:12Z")
Hmmm… to anyone following this, I will put talking about the pre sentence report off until after the sentencing (5th september, it’ll probably make the local paper but I’m not sure if they’ll publish it online, if they do I might link it depending on how i’m feeling at the time) as after having now had it done I think talking about it now could be a very risky thing to do. All I will say is that it went very well - once the legal stuff is concluded, whatever happens, they’ll be getting a thank you letter 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144/20 "2012-08-16T05:41:35Z")
Is your laptop windows based? Won’t a system restore to a date previous to the police having it eliminate a new program? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-my-laptop-back-from-the-police/631144.md?page=2)