A pair of clueless US crooks were brought to justice when they went online using an Apple employee's stolen laptop.

Edmon Shahikian, 23, of Katonah, and Ian Frias, 20, of the Bronx district of New York, were arrested and charged with burglary and possession of stolen property after their victim tracked them down. Kait Duplaga, who works in an Apple store, traced the duo thanks to software application installed on her stolen Mac, the New York Times reports.

Along with the Mac another laptop, flat-screen TVs and computer games, DVDs, MP3 players and a set of car wheel hubs were stolen in a burglary at the apartment Duplaga shared with two other people in White Plains last month. Almost all the stolen booty was recovered when police arrested Shahikian and Frias.

Duplaga used a feature called "Back to My Mac" to gain remote access to her laptop when the dynamic duo used it to surf the net. She saw that the pair of crooks were shopping for beds. Surreptitiously she activated a camera on her laptop which she used to take a picture of Frias, using an application called PhotoBooth. One of Duplaga's flatmates knew Frias, who attended a house party shortly before the break-in - a factor that led to his undoing when Duplaga turned over his picture to the police. ®

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