A woman who had her camera stolen got a close-up of the thieves when photos they took of themselves were automatically uploaded to her computer.

Alison DeLauzon had her digital camera stolen while she was on holiday in Florida, meaning she had to accept the loss of many treasured family snapshots.

But not only did she get those images back, she also got a few new ones – of the men who stole her camera posing with their prize, totally oblivious to the fact the pictures were being transmitted via cyberspace.

Equipped with a special memory card with wireless Internet capability, DeLauzon's camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but also uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant.

"I opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras," said DeLauzon, a native of New York's Long Island suburb.

"Not only is it the guy who stole our camera ... but the guy took a picture of (his accomplice) holding our other camera."

Luckily, the culprits passed by an unsecured network, whose factory-installed setting matched that of DeLauzon's home system, and the Eye-Fi automatically shipped the photos: first baby pictures, then the snap-happy scoundrels.