Mastodawn

Fabian Mar 28, 2024

Ok fedi we have a weird problem.

We’ve lost our Laptop (M1 Air Gold) in an ICE to Vienna last Friday. Have submitted lots item reports to DB and OBB but nothing so far.

But we still get occasional FindMy locations. Always on train station, always on the move for most of the day, always different trains.

We’ve tried chasing it around, but between infrequent updates and low accuracy it’s not much we can do there. Driver didn’t know about it.

Since it’s always on trains, and always on different ones around Austria, we assume it’s with some railway employee, that hasn’t handed it over to Lost&Found? It’s the only thing that sorts makes sense, but we’re just confused tbh.

Edit:
We used the tracking to find where they lived an put a poster on the front door of their apartment complex.
They called us the next day and we met up yesterday.
They were a train attendant that grabbed it, didn't have the opportunity to drop it off at Lost&Found and then forgot about having it in their bag.

Anyways, we are very happy to have it back

Any other tips?
#askFedi #obb #austria

the phos Mar 26, 2024

Update: we’ve watched it leave the train, go to a grocery store, and then back to the residential building next to Westbahnhof. We are very sure that location is accurate. We’ll put up posters there.

We are still unsure what that means. A train attendant taking it with them seems the most likely, but why they couldn’t hand it to Lost&Found is a mystery.

If they wanted to steal it taking it with them to work seems pointless.

If they’re not a train attendant it doesn’t make sense why it’d be on trains for most of the day.

In any case, a poster on their front door with clear contact info and maybe a reward would make it easier for them

the phos Mar 27, 2024

https://not.an.evilcyberhacker.net/notes/9rdjvhqkwb5v03su

Phos et al. :ms_robot_headpats: (@phos)

Update on lost laptop: Putting out the posters worked! It was in fact their home, and they are a train attendant, and they said they put it in their bag and forgot for a week. We will meet tomorrow and get it back. We're very excited

fluffy sharkey phoenix

danimrich Mar 27, 2024

@phos Have you tried talking to the police? § 134 StGB Unterschlagung
It seems within the realm of possibility to determine which employee has it based on the trains s/he was on.

Not a Spring Onion Mar 26, 2024

@phos
Have you checked if they really are different trains?
What I mean is: The same physical waggon can (together with others) form different trains.

Of course, if the trains are from different classes (e.g. IC, ICE), that would rule this out.

the phos Mar 26, 2024

@wakame well the original one we lost it in was an ICE, today it was in at least one REX which while we don’t really know train genders is definitely different. Think it was also on an S-Bahn but not sure.

#bahnbubble @jon

Jon Worth Mar 26, 2024

@Life_is Given it a boost. Let's see who has some info! @phos

@phos is it always same train type? Maybe it’s just in a wagon used by different lines? (And also report it to police)

the phos Mar 26, 2024

@eckes actually identifying which train it’s on is kinda hard but so far we’re pretty sure it was on an REX twice and once maybe on an S-Bahn.

We don’t know enough to tell if they are the same type

Jenkins Mar 26, 2024

@phos Good luck! keep us posted.

robryk Mar 26, 2024

Where is it at night? If it doesn't ping at night, is the area where it's in the evening somewhat consistent?

Whom do you mean by the driver? Driver of the train you lost it on, or a driver of one of the trains it was on?

I see that others already mentioned the possibility of it being the same train, but serving different services. How do you know what service it was on board of? (I don't know how often trains that pass through a station but don't have a stop there actually stop for a short while somewhere nearby anyway, or drive through very slowly in Austria.)

the phos Mar 26, 2024

@robryk for a day or so it was at Vienna Westbahnhof. Tracking showed it in a residential building right next to the Bahnhof, but not sure if that was actually the location or just where the devices pinging it from were.

Looked around there but with hundreds of units, in the circle all we could do is ask people walking by if they found it, and again given it was right next to a Bahnhof maybe the location was just slight off.

Today we found which line it was on, but it stopped at HBF instead of continuing on that line, and when we caught the train at its final station the train driver of that one didn’t know anything. An hour or so after it went off in a different direction from HBF.

We will see where it stays tonight, but even if we go to its location all we can do is ask people about it. It’s quite infuriating to know it’s probably within 50m of you but you can’t actually find it.

And especially with infrequent pings it’s hard to know which train it’s on before it’s off in the distance.

robryk Mar 26, 2024

If it's in a different location for this night, it's a significant piece of evidence: it's carried by someone who spent each of these nights in a different place, which is atypical.

Similarly, it would be interesting to note that it's moving at night: this means it's with someone (or something) that travels at night, which is also atypical.

Did you explicitly ask that driver about potential shift changes at HBF? (I would not assume that drivers and conductors have same shifts.)

@phos Anderes Gerät nehmen, alle paar Minuten Find My Screenshoten, wenn es ein Update gibt schauen welcher Zug im Fahrplan dort zu der Zeit war.

the phos Mar 26, 2024

@f2k1de pretty much what we’ve been doing, but updates seem to come at best every 10min sometimes none for for hours.

Times also seem off sometimes, or location so it’s tricky to see which train they’re actually on.

Today we’ve identified them being on an REX with high confidence twice, first the REX 1, then the REX 8.
Medium confidence of it being on an S-Bahn in between

Julian Mar 26, 2024

@phos
@marudor has some expertise in analysing train data.