On Feb. 28 at 3 a.m., a male victim was in a parking lot near the corner of Third and Gregory when he was attacked. Both his cell phone and money from his wallet were stolen.

About two days after the attack, a photo popped up on the victim’s Facebook wall. It was a photo of a man, believed to be one of the men who attacked him. The victim’s cell phone was programmed to transfer any new photos to his Facebook page whenever it was plugged into a computer.

Last week, Champaign police released the photo, asking the public for help in identifying the man.

Victims of a mugging rarely see their stolen items again, but in this case, technology has given police some unexpected help.

There are steps you can actively take, should your laptop or cell phone be stolen, to aid in its recovery or the arrest of the thieves. Those steps come in a variety of options.

Campus Information Technology and Educational Services, or CITES, offers a short computer registration service for students that aids in the recovery of missing computers. Once you report your computer as stolen, CITES security staff will scan the network should the thief decide to connect to the UI network with your computer.

CITES’ solution, however, only works on campus. If the thief takes your computer off campus, you’re out of luck — unless you have Absolute Software’s LoJack for Laptops, which is a subscription-based software solution that allows for your computer to be tracked down whenever it connects to the Internet. Should you report it stolen, they will work with local law enforcement to recover your stolen property. They also offer a data protection service that erases all sensitive data from your computer in the case of theft.

A free and open source alternative to LoJack is Prey. According to their Web site, “Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer… and in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief.”

There aren’t very many cell phone tracking services out there, but if you are an iPhone user, you can sign up for Apple’s MobileMe service. It offers you e-mail and data storage services, but its most notable feature is the “find my iPhone” application. Should you lose your iPhone, you can track it down using its built-in GPS, send your phone an annoying message with sound — even if it has been set to silent — to aid in its return, remotely lock down your phone, and if you’re paranoid or have sensitive data stored there, remotely wipe all data off of it. While we don’t encourage you to be a vigilante and track down your stolen iPhone yourself, handing any information you gather from MobileMe to the proper authorities will help in the recovery of your stolen device.

It’s a rough world; and sadly, there are people out there who take things. But technology is becoming an increasingly important part of solving crimes. Knowing these services are out there, wouldn’t you want to sign up for something that might help the thief accidentally catch himself?