Laptop Thief Considerately Returns Victim’s Data on USB Memory Stick

[Liberal_in_LA]

Laptop Thief Considerately Returns Victim’s Data on USB Memory Stick

by Robert Quigley | 9:09 am, October 19th, 2010


Losing your laptop is a pretty awful fate — most of us around here break into a cold sweat when we’re separated from ours for about 15 minutes. In addition to being pricy devices, our laptops contain our most personal data, which can rarely be easily or fully replaced. One professor at Sweden’s Umeå University recently had his laptop stolen after carelessly leaving his backpack in a stairwell for just a few minutes.

He never got the laptop back, but a week later, he was surprised to find that the thief had backed up all of his documents and personal files and mailed them to him in a USB stick:

The professor was shocked to discover the thief had copied all the documents and personal files from his laptop to the memory storage device, a process which likely took hours.

All things considered, the professor is delighted at the outcome, despite the loss of his computer. He hopes, however, that other thieves can learn to be as compassionate.

“Often when people lose their computers and cameras, it is understandably not the gadget itself that is the most important. The content is often irreplaceable.”

http://www.geekosystem.com/laptop-thief-considerately-returns-victims-data-on-usb-memory-stick/

[ieoeja]

1. I had stolen wallets, sans money, returned twice.

One dropped it in a mailbox. Another at a library. It is really nice not having to replace your driver's license, etc.

[antigone382]

3. That happened to me once, too.

They stole my money and my debit card, but they gave the wallet w/my ID and some important photos. On the whole, I felt like I came out lucky (it was easy enough to cancel the card).

[Statistical]

2. Hours? I doubt it.

My 16GB thumb drive pushes about 10MB/sec on average w/ mixed content (small & large files).

=16*1024/10/60 = 27 minutes.

Smaller drive would likely be 5 to 10 minutes.

Interesting story just not sure why author felt the need to make the thief a martyr with his "hours" worth of work.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Depends on the amount of data

Last full backup I did took close to an hour.

Granted traveling abroad I always do full backups.

[Statistical]

7. Well the thief returned the personal data (not entire content of the drive) on a thumb drive.

So likely we are talking 16GB more like 4 or 8 GB.

I doubt the thief bought a $700 thumbdrive to backup 256GB :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139147

[soleft]

5. I wish someone had done that with the film from my son's birth

Our camera were stolen from the maternity ward with film of my son just seconds after he was born. I wish someone had had the compassion to take the cameral and atleast leave the film.

[Pavulon]

6. That is so wrong..

stealing a camera in a maternity ward id the now low for today..

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. how awful. Stealing from someone in the hospital

[BlueCheese]

10. Geez.

That's pretty bad stuff.

[tabatha]

8. I once had to drive to San Francisco

to get a wallet back. The person who found it ("thief") called me.