We'd successfully tracked down two missing iPods taken in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And we followed another one in Los Angeles, picked up from a bench and sold at a flea market -- days later, given as a gift, to this woman.

Woman: I'm shocked. Really shocked.

And remember, we were able to track all of them down simply because the users sent personal information  about themselves once they registered our missing iPods. They registered not just with Apple, the manufacturer, but also with Dateline.

Remember this iPod, shown being lifted in the Fremont District of Las Vegas?

When we checked the registration, it led us to this woman, not your average iPod customer, in the small town of San Jacinto, Calif.

And it didn't take long for her to guess who we were.

Woman: Okay, this is not Dateline is it?

Chris Hansen: We get that all the time. Here, have a seat over here.

Obviously she's not the person taking it on the video. She told us, she got it as a gift.

Chris Hansen: and it was a gift from whom?

Woman: It was from my husband … He brought it back for me from Las Vegas.

The iPod had traveled 260 miles from where it was stolen, and this hard-working woman began to worry she was in a bit of hot water, especially because she knew who we were.

Woman: You're Chris whatever from Dateline…

Chris Hansen: I'm Chris Hansen? I get that all the time.

Woman: And I'm like okay, I'm not a predator so…

Chris Hansen: So what could be going on here?

Woman: Yeah.

Chris Hansen: Well, let me tell you what is going on. I am Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC, and we're doing a story on stolen iPods.

Woman: Oh, you're kidding! You've got to be kidding!

Chris Hansen: And we know you didn't steal anything so you're not in any trouble…

Woman: Well I know my husband didn't steal it either…

So where did her husband say he got the iPod?

Woman: Well, he told me he bought it off a guy that was sitting next to him at a poker table.

Chris Hansen: So he was playing poker?

Woman: He was playing poker.

Chris Hansen: And a guy next to him says…?

Woman: He says I won this playing poker, you want to buy it? And he bought from him.

Chris Hansen: What's the lesson in this? I mean clearly this is not something you're not going to enjoy as much as you would had it been…

Woman: I doubt if I'll ever use it now, to be honest with you.

Next, it was time to move on to New Jersey, where we'd had five iPods pinched from parking lots and shopping malls.

First stop: the town of Kearny.

This 17-year-old has registered our iPod but didn't use his real name.

However, after installing our Dateline disk, he agreed to reveal the identity of his computer via things like e-mail accounts and personal websites. We don't know if Apple has access to the same information when iPods are plugged into computers, but it did allow us to learn his real identity.

And while he lied about his name, he did admit how he got the iPod.

Student: Uh, me and my friend actually found the iPod.

Chris Hansen: And where did you find it?

Student: At a mall…

And the videotape backs up his story -- to a point.

Student: I told him yo, there's a bag. We should return it. He's like, all right well go pick it up and we'll return it to lost and found.

Chris Hansen: Now what you don't see on the video, but what we saw, was you turning in the bag -- but not the iPod.

Student: right.

Chris Hansen: Why turn in the bag and the rest of the stuff but not the iPod?

Student: I don’t know. I know what I did is wrong. If I could go back I wouldn't have done it.

Attempts to reach this young man's parents were unsuccessful.

On his way out, he tells us he didn't even keep the iPod but gave it to a friend.

Remember this iPod taken off the roof of our car at the mall in Paramus, N.J.?

It found its way to the town of Clifton.

The college sophomore who filled out our online tracking registration with her real name and

Web extra video 'It's a cruel world and everybody does it' Before giving her iPod back, a college sophomore says she deserved someone else’s iPod since somebody took hers. Dateline NBC

address told us she got it the same way most people do. She bought it.

Chris Hansen: Where did you buy it?

Woman: Best Buy.

Chris Hansen: Best Buy. Was it cash, credit card or check?

Woman: Uh, cash…

But the video doesn't exactly show her purchasing it at a Best Buy.

Chris Hansen: Now does any of this look at all familiar to you?

Woman: Yes.

Chris Hansen: It does? Why?

Woman: Because that was the day I found it.

Chris Hansen: The day you found it?

Woman: Yes … I took it and kept on going.

Chris Hansen: You took it and kept going. Even doing a little victory dance?

Woman: Yeah...

Her defense?  She'd been a victim of iPod theft herself! And this was a way to even the score.

Woman: well someone did it to me!

Chris Hansen: Somebody stole your iPod?

Woman: Yes.

Chris Hansen: So you figured you'd take somebody else's?

Woman: Well, I mean, it was sitting on top of a car, so, if I left it there someone else is going to take it.

Chris Hansen: So you don't see anything wrong with what you did?

Woman: Well, yeah, I mean I felt wrong when someone did it to me!

Chris Hansen: Then why would you do that to somebody else if you felt cheated when yours got ripped off?

Woman: Because it's a cruel world so everyone does it to everybody.

Chris Hansen: Does that make it right?

Woman: No. Not at all

Chris Hansen: If there's anything else you want to tell me…

Woman: Of course, I apologize, you know, and I didn't know that they could be tracked. And I felt bad when it happened to me..,

Then she does something we haven't seen before. She gives the iPod back.

Another lost iPod has been found simply by using the online registration information.

Finally, it's time for us to try and track down the rest of our missing iPods in Las Vegas.

We find one in the hands of yet another 17-year-old, and like so many others he claims it was purchased legitimately.

Chris Hansen: And do you know what store your mom bought this iPod in?

Student: I'm not sure. I think, Best Buy.

But minutes later, after he's seen our video of him picking up our iPod from a table in the mall food court -- then walking away -- he appears to have learned a lesson, and has some advice.

Student: If you find a stolen iPod, just give it back to lost and found.

This young man's father later tells Dateline he thought we were unfairly tempting kids to take iPods.

And finally, we meet this man..

Chris Hansen: Hey, man, how are you? Good to see you.

He filled out our online registration using his real name and address.

First he tells us he bought the iPod. Then he says he found the iPod.

But none of this explains the video we have of someone who looks just like him lifting the iPod off a bench in a mall.

His response?

Man: You can equate it to walking down the street and finding a $100 bill on the floor. I mean, where you going to take that if you're just in the middle of the street?

Chris Hansen: But this is a product that was in a mall, and you could've at least gone to lost and found!

Man: Okay. So I guess I used bad judgment at that moment.

We'd tracked down 12 of the 20 missing iPods.

Some of those taken would never turn up because no one ever bothered to register them. So we can't be sure if any of these people actually tried to find who really owned the iPods in order to return them.

We do know it was easy to locate the ones that were registered.  And we did it using some of the same information that owners provide to Apple when any new iPod is registered.

MORE FROM DATELINE

Dateline Section Front

Mystery at Lost Dog Road Slideshow: Photos in the Bob Duke case When The Smoke Clears   Sneak peek: When The Smoke Clears Slideshow: The Christie Fleming murder Transcript: Dan Brown and Secrets Of The Lost Symbol Through The Pouring Rain In Plain Sight: Jaycee Dugard Timeline: Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping The Michael Jackson Tapes Dateline Section Front   Add Dateline headlines to your news reader: