How was it possible for the thief to log in to the owner's account and appear online as her? Do macs not have a username/password prompt when you start up?

This is very similar to GadgetTrak's Mac Theft Recovery software http://www.gadgettrak.com/products/verey/ The software utilizes the built in iSight camera to capture video of thieves...without having to pay for the $99 a year .Mac account. It also gathers a lot of other information from the network such as location info, wireless networks etc.

I just bought a macbook pro. This is a great feature.

However, I'm just baffled (and happy) to know that these wankers didn't have the good sense to replace the hard drive.

If mine is stolen then here's hoping clowns like these are behind it!

What an amazing story, and what a clever idea to use back to my mac to take a picture. Awesome!