Clifton, Bristol, man photographed by stolen laptop in his sleep

A Clifton man was photographed in his sleep by a stolen laptop, which then directed police to his house.

Rastin Khalaji was caught on camera by tracking software downloaded by the victim, a female student, on the laptop. Yesterday at Bristol Magistrates Court, he was convicted of two counts of handling stolen goods.

Khalaji, 19, was given a 12-month community order. He must abide by a curfew for eight weeks between 7pm and 7am and must complete 70 hours of unpaid work within the next year. 

Acting Detective Inspector Caroline Stainer of the Priority Crime Team in Bristol, said: "The victim was a student living in a shared house in Cotham. She came home late on a Saturday night to find she had been burgled and her laptop was missing. 

"She went to a friend's and activated a software application she had installed free on her laptop called Prey.

"In the morning the victim had received an email from the software company which stated that the laptop had been used at 3am, gave a GPS location of the WiFi address it was connected to, a list of sites that had been visited and even took a photograph of the person using the laptop while he was sleeping. 

"The victim rang us and it carried on giving real time updates, which allowed us to use it in investigations, leading us to arrest Khalaji that very same day (August 20, 2011)."

Police officers made checks on the location given by the software and arrested Khalaji the next day.