COSTA MESA : Computer Hacker on Side of Law

Philip Bettencourt’s formal title is photo lab supervisor for the Costa Mesa Police Department. But on Tuesday afternoon, he served as the department’s official computer hacker.

Bettencourt, pounding the keyboard excitedly as other officers looked on, was determined to find information within a stolen computer’s vast memory that would link the machine to its owner.

So far, he had made matches for all but two of the 26 computers recovered earlier this month by police as part of a countywide investigation of stolen office equipment. This would be number 25.

First, he checked the hard drive’s directory, searching for a word-processing program that might include a form letter or fax cover sheet containing the owner’s name, address or phone number.

When that failed, he tapped into an accounting program, checking for clues on the accounts payable menu.

“Bingo!” Bettencourt yelled a few minutes into his work. He found an invoice account number to a Fountain Valley cement company that might reveal the owner’s identity. Seconds later, he came across the owner’s bank credit-card number.

And less than a minute after that, Bettencourt hit pay dirt: The name of a Santa Ana building company that, when contacted, revealed that it had indeed been the victim of a recent computer burglary.

“This is great,” said Bettencourt, who has been interested in computers for nearly two decades now, ever since Radio Shack put its first model on the market. “I love doing this. This is hacking, but it’s in a good sense, not trying to hurt someone. This is helping people.”

Few computer owners who were reunited with their equipment would contest that. When Costa Mesa police recovered $250,000 worth of computers, fax machines, telephones and other office gadgets, detectives were faced with the difficult task of matching machines bearing few helpful identifying marks to their owners, said investigator Bob Fate.

Enter Bettencourt, who tapped into the computers’ hard drives, attempting to find the documents that would reveal from whom the machines were taken.

As of Tuesday, all but $50,000 worth of equipment was back in owners’ hands. Investigators suggested that people who recently lost office equipment call the station to determine if some of the recovered gadgetry belongs to them.

Ironically, the alleged burglars tripped themselves up by not erasing the data from the computers before reselling the machines, authorities said. A college student who purchased one of the stolen computers found data from the previous owner, whom he contacted. Police were then called in, and a second “buy” was scheduled in which several suspects were arrested, Fate said.

Three people were arrested Sept. 15 and charged with receiving and possessing stolen property. Police are still searching for the burglars.

The office equipment was recovered from an apartment and storage facility in Santa Ana.

Bettencourt matched the final stolen computer to its owner before sundown Tuesday.