It’s a sad fact of life: The object that many people consider their most precious possession — their personal laptop, smartphone or tablet – is just waiting to be stolen. Thieves are always on the lookout for the right opportunity to grab it and run. This can happen anywhere — on campus, in coffee shops, in offices, cars and homes. And FBI statistics suggest that there’s only a 3 percent chance that an unprotected device can be recovered.

Since 2012, the UCLA Office of Risk Management has made available free software that downloads in seconds and increases the chance that campus police or other local law enforcement agencies will be able to reunite owners with stolen electronic devices. Campus police and risk management officials want to spread the word about the software’s availability.

“Chances for a recovery have gone up because people have downloaded this software,” said Lieutenant Mark Littlestone of the UCLA Police Department. “It’s very helpful when we try to recover laptops, whether they are PCs or MACs.” And similar security protection software by the same vendor is being offered free for both UCLA-owned and personal phones, both Android and iPhones.

The software is available to students, faculty and staff – anyone with a ucla.edu email address. More than 3,600 devices have been registered to date. A burst of signups – about 600 – occurred after the well-publicized thefts of 55 laptops from Charles E. Young Research Library in November and Ackerman Union in September. Campus police arrested a suspect and recovered 53 stolen laptops.

There is no limit to the number of devices — personal or university-owned — that can be equipped with the software. There are several ways a laptop can be protected.

When you download the software, it will automatically record the serial number of the computer. With that serial number, police can, if it is ever stolen, list it on a national database of stolen property. So if it is ever recovered, police can trace it back to you if they check the database.

Once the protected device is turned on, the login screen will display ownership information: name, phone number, email or any other contact information owners u have decided to display. That alone might dissuade a would-be thief, Littlestone said.

If your device is stolen, you would go to the Front Door Software website, log into your personal account and report it as stolen. You can then lock down your computer using a prearranged code. Your laptop will lock as soon as it connects to a wifi network.

From your personal Front Door Software account page, you can turn on an audible theft alert that you’ve customized. It will sound when your stolen laptop boots up. 

“Owners can have it say, ‘Stop, thief! This laptop is stolen,’” Littlestone said. “If a thief opens it up in a public place, like a café, the computer will start barking at him: ‘Help! I’m stolen. Please return me to my owner.’ Maybe someone nearby will hear that and call us. Hopefully we’ll get a description of the thief after he takes off with it.”

Owners can also type out a message – such as ‘This computer has been stolen’ — and have it display on the laptop security screen.

To help police track it down, the software security program will report the laptop’s location via Google Maps if it senses a high-speed Internet connection in the area where it’s being booted up. You can go to your Front Door Software personal website to see the location information sent there by your stolen laptop and give that information to the police.

“It’s been helpful,” Littlestone said of the security software. “We’ve been able to make some recoveries of laptops and cellphones. The whole point is to do something positive to protect your laptop. First, don’t leave it unattended. Too many times, people will leave it on a desk and walk away to make a phone call or get a cup of coffee. It takes only seconds for someone to swipe a laptop.

“But if thieves start to think it will bark at him and show ‘This computer has been stolen’ on a screen, they may think twice. How are they going to be able to sell this laptop to someone else? It’s of no value at a pawnshop, on eBay or craigslist.”  

Start by going to http://www.frontdoorsoftware.com/ucla for more information.