Reporting devices stolen

NOTE  Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, theft reports may not be available.

You can submit a theft report to request that the Absolute Investigations team open an investigation to try to recover a stolen device. To recover the device, the Absolute Investigations team uses both the details provided on the police report and the information gathered by the device's Absolute agent.

IMPORTANT  If the police report is not available when you submit the theft report, and the device is eligible for the Service Guarantee, you must upload a copy of the report within 30 days of the theft report date. For more information about Absolute's Service Guarantee and details about eligibility requirements, see the Service Guarantee FAQ.

For more information about reporting devices stolen, review the videos and interactions in the Learning Hub.

You can submit a theft report for devices that meet the following system requirements:

  • Operating system: The device is running a supported version of one of the following operating systems:
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Chrome OS (installed on Chromebooks only)

Before you can submit a theft report, the following prerequisites must be met:

  • The device does not currently have an open theft investigation.
  • The device is not frozen. If the device is frozen, you must unfreeze it before continuing.
  • The device does not have an outstanding Conditional Freeze request. If it does, you must remove the request before continuing.
  • The device is not in a policy group that is assigned an Offline Freeze rule. You must move the device to another policy group before continuing.
  • If you want to run a Data Delete on the device, submit the Data Delete request on the device before you submit a theft report. For more information, see Requesting a Data Delete Operation in the Absolute User Guide.

NOTE  Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, theft reports may not be available.

Submit a theft report to the Absolute Investigations team if all of the following conditions apply:

  • The device is missing as a result of a criminal act
  • You are prepared to proceed with a criminal investigation, including prosecution of the perpetrator
  • You have filed a police report with law enforcement and have obtained a copy of the report

    • IMPORTANT  If the police report is not available at the time you submit the theft report, and the device is eligible for the Service Guarantee, you must upload a copy of the report within 30 days of the theft report date.

If any of these conditions are not met, do not submit a theft report. However, you can track the device in the Absolute console by reporting it missing.

To create a theft report for a stolen device:

  1. Ensure that the missing device meets the conditions for a stolen device.
  2. Log in to the Absolute console as a user with Manage permissions for Investigation.
  3. On the device's Device Details page, click Device Actions > Report Missing or Stolen.
  4. On the Report Missing or Stolen Devices dialog, click Create Theft Report.
  5. Under Police Report, complete the following fields:
    • Police Agency: police agency with which you filed the police report
    • District/Division/Precinct Number: additional information about the policy agency
    • Investigating Officer: officer's name and badge number, if available
    • Agency Phone Number: phone number and extension of the police agency
    • Police File Number: record or identifying number referenced in the police report

  6. If you have a copy of the police report, under Police Report Attachment click Upload and navigate to the location of the police report. Complete the steps to upload the file. The police file must be:

    • one of the following file formats are supported: PDF, TIF/TIFF, JPG/JPEG, GIF, and PNG
    • under 10 MB
  7. Under Incident Details, enter the following information from the police report:

    8. NOTE  The greater the accuracy and detail of the information you provide, the greater the likelihood that the Absolute Investigations team is able to help recover the device. Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

  1. In the Victim’s Name field, enter the full name of the user associated with the device when the incident occurred.
  2. Under When did the incident occur?:
    1. Click the first field and use the calendar picker to select the date of the incident.
    2. Click the second field and use the hour and minute selectors to enter the applicable time.
    3. Click the third field and select the applicable time zone.
  3. Under Where did the incident occur?, enter the location of the incident. At a minimum, City, State/Province, and Country are required.
  4. In the Details of the Incident field, enter the details (maximum 1000 characters) about the last known location of the device and the circumstances of the incident.
  1. Under Investigation Report Contact list, some fields are prepopulated with your user information. Complete all remaining fields. If there are others users you want to notify, enter their email addresses in the Additional Contacts field. Press Enter after each address.
  2. Under Consent to Install Software, read each paragraph carefully and then indicate your acknowledgment by selecting the two check boxes.
  3. Click Request Investigation.

In the Absolute console, the device is flagged as Reported Stolen and a Theft report created event is logged to Event History. The Investigations page shows with the new report at the top of the grid with a status of Monitoring. You will receive an email notification each time the report changes status.

NOTE  While the Absolute Investigations team completes its investigation, you can view the device's Device Details, but you can't submit any security actions that may hamper the Investigations team's attempts to recover the device.

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