My mom just called to tell me Dad's laptop was stolen from his office. He left the office door unlocked and someone took it between 11:00 pm last night and 11:00 this morning. I guess I'll be locking my car at night from now on...
It's doubly oooky because Dad's office is behind our garage and the door is not visible from the street or even from the front of the garage. You have to be intimately involved with our backyard to see the office at all and you can't see into the office because of all the crapola Dad has covering the window inside and out.
This opens up the possibility that someone from the neighborhood did the deed. Who else would have any idea it was there, let alone be aware of its contents?
It was a new laptop and it had years' worth of family history, family photos, and other research/hobby information stored in it. Dad transferred some of his from his old desktop, but there are some files/info he won't be able to replace. Mom called me and was going to call the police.
We're fortunate: no one was hurt. It's just stuff. But I LIKE my stuff. I'll admit it. I have THINGS that I'm quite attached to. I don't want someone taking my stuff, especially something as personal as family history. I hope karma bites the thief in the ass.
And I'm projecting a bit: If I lost MY laptop with the wedding spreadsheet with all the addresses and RSVPs and the wedding budget, I'd be screwed.
Of course, this simplifies what to get Dad for Father's Day...
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4 comments:
I'm so sorry this happened to your dad. There's very little, thankfully, that feels as much like you've been violated as having possessions stolen and knowing an intruder has been in your personal space.
I remember after my car was stolen how angry that made me and how lacking in total empathy I was. Christen-in-Oakland's husband, Mike, tried to get me to think that perhaps the person who stole it needed it more than I did. While I understood what he was trying to do and while I've preached the same non-judgmental mantra before, at that moment it was crap and I was having none of it!
Like you, I'm glad everyone is safe. Hope the police prove effective in finding the perp and your dad's property...
And don't forget to back up your files on a CD or ZIP drive...
Yeah, he's pretty bummed--and kicking himself for providing easy access. He did back up his files recently to zip drives, but he still lost some data and the time he put in to getting family history onto the laptop.
I had Mom call the credit bureaus to put fraud alerts on their accounts.
Good timing: they got a letter yesterday saying that Dad's service records were recently lost/stolen along with thousands of other veterans' records. Sheesh.
Very sorry to hear about this. Like you, I like my stuff--I always like it well enough that I want it to stay my stuff until *I* give it away. I confess that the easiness with which laptops can be lost/stolen is one reason I've not felt bad about not getting one.
I hope there's little further fallout.
The insurance company got dad a check within days (for $200 more than he paid it) so he bought a new one. But there's no compensation for all the time he spent inputting family history data.
We are still trying to figure out who did it. A futile pursuit, but one we keep bringing up nonetheless.
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