Registration Information

Question

My home has just been robbed and my dear PowerBook G4 and iPod 60GB have been stolen.
I want to find my registration information and report them stolen so that if and only if someone tries to re-register my stolen computer and iPod, it should flag.
Is there anyway to find it out??
  Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Answer 1

Hi, Kevinmtl. Your original purchase invoice and your original Powerbook box will both have the Powerbook's serial number on them. If you didn't save those and you didn't write the number down anywhere else, too bad. I don't know whether iPod paperwork and packaging shows the serial number or not.
If anyone is stupid enough to try to re-register equipment that has already been registered in your name, they won't be able to. Most thieves are aware of that and won't try (and what they'd hope to gain by registering it is also pretty hard to imagine). Apple's advice for people whose equipment has been stolen is to report it to the local police. Apple maintains no registry of stolen equipment and will not participate in your efforts to recover yours, unless the police contact Apple directly. That isn't part of Apple's business.
Since the chances of your recovering your stuff without having installed "call home" reporting software on the Powerbook are negligible, you'd probably do well to file a police report and then spend your energy on (1) finding out whether your homeowner's or renter's insurance will cover the losses, and (2) changing all your credit card and bank account numbers, passwords and access codes that might be compromised and lead to identity theft, which could cost you dozens of times more than replacing your equipment. And if you do replace the equipment, file the paperwork away where you can find it if you need to.