What I worry about with many of these recovery stories is that you're probably not humiliating the criminal, just some unlucky person who bought the computer on Craigslist.
I was once looking to buy a Mac off of Craigslist. So I sent the guy an email to ask about it. Oh, you lost the keyboard and mouse? You don't have the original OS install disc? No receipt? The black power cord in the pictures looks like one of those PC specials? Yeah, what are the odds that you misplaced absolutely everything regarding the system except for the main unit itself? Stolen.
