I a New Yorker living in London.  The G4 Powerbook I bought in NYC in
December 2005 was stolen from my flat here in London (Bethnal Green)
In Feb 2006.  I know my chances of retreiving it are small, but I'd
like to know, what happens to all the stolen laptops in the UK?  Are
they taken to the black market?  Shipped to Eastern Europe?  Do they
end up in Cash Converters?

Additionally, I would like to know what thieves do to Powerbooks to
disguise the fact that they are stolen?  Do they wipe the drive?  How
do they get into a password protected computer.  If they can't get
through the password protection is the laptop non-salable? Will my
powerbook be easier to spot because it has a US not UK keyboard?

And lastly, if I were to (sadly) spend my days trolling around London
/ UK, where would be the best place to look for my stolen laptop? I've
already posted to craig's list, gumtree and ebay.  How do i get in
contact with someone offering 'hot' goods?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7393186813

or 

http://www.myspace.com/stolen_powerbook

Sorry but it's anybody's guess where your laptop is now. It could have
been sold in a pub, on ebay, thru' Classified Ads ...

It's very rare for folks who've been burgled to ever see their stuff
again but curiously this did happen a couple of weeks ago to some of
my friends in Worthing. The woman lost some jewellery and she went
round the local jewellers' shops, just in case.

Amazingly, the burglar was at the counter in one shop haggling with
the jeweller over her stuff. She called her husband and sister who
were waiting outside but the burglar evaded their clutches and legged
it.

She did recover some of her pieces but not all and, of course, she now
has a description. Apparently, he didn't look like a burglar! He was
well dressed and seemed ever-so-respectable.

As regards password protection, I am afraid that this won't prevent
any techie from accessing your hard drive.

I have no idea how the makers show the Serial No on the G4 but on my
laptop it's just printed on a label stuck on the underside.

I wish you the best of luck ...

But I'm not optimistic.

All the Best

Bryan

Lots of used stuff is sold at computer fairs.

London has a major dealer in Tottenham Court Road.

www.micromart.co.uk (and the matching paper magazine) is full of ads -
both trade and private.

I don't know anything anything solid about the prevalence of stolen
equipment in these places.

Its a wonder they haven't build in a GPS system inside of laptops,
preferably right inside on the hard drive, make it hard to take out
without special tools, that would give you enough time to track it
down before the theif could disable it.

A GPS system?

I don't think so!

Burglars soon catch on and I guess if they wrapped their trophy in
aluminium foil then the GPS would be disabled.

You are spot on Probo

People nick motorcycles using refrigerated trucks

The 'lock' code on a car radio can (so I'm told) be removed by a spell
in the freezer.

Try searching on Google for it.  You can find pretty much everything on Google.