Thief Steals Computer... Then Sends Its Owner USB Stick With All His Lost Data

from the how-nice dept

Mon, Oct 18th 2010 11:35am — Mike Masnick

Losing a computer can be quite traumatic, especially if you're not good about backing up your data. So, imagine the surprise from a professor who had his laptop stolen (without having backed up his data), only to find a week later that the thief had (quite considerately) copied all of the professor's personal files to a USB device (stolen with the computer) and sent the USB stick with the data back to the professor's home. It appears the thief tried to be as considerate as possible, in that while he had originally stolen the professors full backpack, including wallet, credit cards, keys and more, he later returned it all, except for the computer (and somewhat inexplicably, the professor's library card). As the professor noted, this certainly seems like an awful lot of effort to go through. None of this, of course, excuses the thief for stealing the laptop in the first place, but it's quite a story. Of course, the professor remains unnamed, so there's a part of me that wonders how true the whole story is in the first place...

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Filed Under: data, thieves

28 Comments

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Dark Helmet (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 11:27am

Why...
...is it that the stories we hear about common criminals make them sound twice as nice as the stories we hear about collection societies that confiscate people's property?
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TPBer, 18 Oct 2010 @ 11:51am

Well...
This guy will never make it to the second level at "Pirate School", what was he thinking.
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Tor (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 11:51am

I searched for the story and found it covered in what I would regard as a trustworthy local newspaper (article is in Swedish), so even though it seems unlikely with so considerate thieves my best guess is that the story is true. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the newspaper.
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PRMan, 18 Oct 2010 @ 11:53am

Re: Why...
Double negative infinity?!?
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:02pm

You just never know
Many years ago (almost 40) I was hitchhiking in Mexico back to the US. I got a ride with a shirt salesman for several hundred miles. When I got out, I had left my wallet (with passport, money, driver's license, etc) in his car. As a result I had to sneak across the border back into the US (between Texas and New Mexico), and then hitchhiked back home in Colorado - it took me two weeks since I detoured through California to visit family and friends. When I got home, my wallet was waiting for me, with everything intact, including the money that was in different denominations than when I lost it! :-)

So, maybe the thief REALLY needed a laptop and had no $$ to get it. As a result, he steals from someone who can afford (hopefully) to replace it, but knowing that data is usually more valuable than its container, was considerate enough to return that to the owner. The professor got back what he really needed (the data) and the thief (who will hopefully pay back society when able) got what he needed. As for the library card, he probably needed to check out a book on computer programming... :-)
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:11pm

I'm waiting for the record execs to trumpet this post as "see Mike glorifies theft!" ... in 3. 2
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Hephaestus (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:16pm

Re: Why...
Criminals don't have law degrees :)
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:19pm

Re: Why...
Because we're all royally screwed?
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Unknowledgable Geek, 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:27pm

Stolen
I had a backup stolen once and all the artwork was returned. Everything else was stolen, but that is all replaceable items. The artwork that was not replaceable was all returned. Well, found by the cops on the roadside.
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MrWilson, 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:27pm

Re: Why...
Because you don't expect "real" thieves to be that nice whereas most people aren't surprised that there are collection societies that have found or paid for legal methods of confiscating other people's property.

You don't get rich by being nice to people.

I've heard stories of petty criminals being nice. A guy told me he got robbed and asked the robber if the robber would just take the cash since it was a pain to have to get a new license and cancel credit cards and the thief took the cash and gave him back the wallet. Of course it's second hand, so I don't know if it's true, but it's at least believable.

I've never heard stories of collective societies being nice, even to their own members. In fact, quite the contrary.
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nunya_bidness, 18 Oct 2010 @ 12:28pm

free_laptop
good one prof
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ZANE, 18 Oct 2010 @ 1:05pm

apparently 2 wrongs make a left
LOL ROFLMAO!!! this is sooooooo fucking "irony." remember kids 2 wrongs don't make a right they make a left.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2010 @ 1:25pm

reminds me of a story that was popular in Montreal in the 90s:

some guy gets his brand new Cadillac STS stolen, then a couple of days later its returned, and he finds an envelope from the supposedly thief, apologizing to borrowing the car and offering him a full tank of gaz and opera tickets.

when the man returns from the opera he finds his house was robbed.
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V (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 1:27pm

Re: apparently 2 wrongs make a left
and when running from cops, it is better to make lefts then rights. I had a cop tell me that most people make right turns when they lost sight of the cop.
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Kitt, 18 Oct 2010 @ 1:31pm

So did he happen to put his return address on the package?
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MarksAngel (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 1:33pm

I once accidentally left my cigarette case at a bus stop down town. There was a a full pack of Marlboro's in it along with my $20.00 zippo and my identification card and $30.00 in it. 2-3 weeks later I received it in the mail, everything was inside it and there was no return address.

I know it's not the same as having something stolen, but this story reminded me of that.
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 2:25pm

Eh, I've had my wallet stolen out of my truck before and the thief was considerate enough to mail everything that wasn't spendable back to me. Of course by then I'd already stood in lines for most of a day and had everything replaced but whatever. Apparently there are degrees of assholitude.
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interval, 18 Oct 2010 @ 2:25pm

Re: Re: Why...
Thieves aren't nice. Just rats. And some are bigger than others (Bernie Madoff)
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Gwiz, 18 Oct 2010 @ 2:26pm

Re: apparently 2 wrongs make a left
... and two lefts make a U-turn
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Mojo, 18 Oct 2010 @ 2:28pm

MarksAngel: I find it interesting that you felt the need to say "Marlboros" and "zippo" as opposed to simply saying it was full of cigarettes and a $20 lighter.

Brand names important to you? As if the fact that they were Marlboros and a Zippo made it more valuable?

I actually like this story, it's the way thieves should be. If I was stealing a laptop *because I needed a laptop,* I would def do the same.

Same with stealing a wallet - 99% of them do it for the cash, so why not send back the rest? Would make getting robbed a whole lot less of a pain in the ass and on a karmic scale, probably helps :-)
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2010 @ 2:51pm

Re: Assholitude Scale
You should trademark the "Assholitude Scale". Probably a good thing to use going forward.
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PandaMarketer (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 3:46pm

Re: apparently 2 wrongs make a left
...but 3 lefts make a right.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 4:23pm

Re: Why...
Thieves at least have the decency to steal from you behind your back.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2010 @ 4:53pm

Re: apparently 2 wrongs make a left
two wongs make a family buffet
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2010 @ 4:54pm

Re: apparently 2 wrongs make a left
two wrights make an airplane
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MarksAngel (profile), 19 Oct 2010 @ 12:37am

Re:
No it's not the name brand that's important it's the cost of those particular brands I was alluding too. Which let's face it are more expensive than generic smokes and a bic lighter. The fact is somebody found them and didn't think "Oh well she can obviously afford more" and decide to keep it. They were kind enough to send them back regardless.
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rebrad (profile), 19 Oct 2010 @ 5:07am

Very Polite
I think it was very polite of the thieve to at least provide the owner his data. Sort of reminds me of a holiday in southern France where some gypsies broke into my car and stole my CD/Radio. They broke the smallest window in the car and carefully removed the CD/Radio with no cut wires or ripped dash. They even removed the CD, I guess because it wasn't their kind of music.

You have to hand it to them for being true professionals. It could have been worse. They could have plastered all the data all over the internet. Count your blessings.
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ComputerAddict (profile), 19 Oct 2010 @ 8:51am

Not a Thief
Okay Here's My guess,

Student of said professor overslept missed his final paper deadline and the professor refused to take it late. The student then steals the professor's backpack, inserts his final paper into the "Personal Files" and then returns all the files back to the professor. He keeps the laptop as not to raise suspicion when everything was returned. And the Library card was merely a decoy to draw attention away from the professor's personal files.
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