Stolen Laptop

"UNIVAC: a device, which contained 20,000 vacuum tubes, occupied 1,500 square feet and weighed 40 tons; there was also a laptop version weighing 27 tons."- Dave Barry

The Consumerist recommends 7 Things You Should Do Before & After Your Laptop Is Stolen.

BEFORE

• Have Serial Number and Receipt On File - this will be necessary to prove you are the rightful owner.

• Backup Your Hard Drive (this is also protection should your hard drive fail. Mine has)

• Install Tracking Software – who knew there is LoJack for Laptops?

AFTER

• File A Report With Your Laptop Manufacturer —In case the new owner attempts to have your laptop repaired by the manufacturer.

• File a Police Report —they’ll want the serial number.

• Call the Pawn Shops —They might have bought it or remember someone trying to sell it.

• Check Online Marketplaces like Ebay and Craigslist for someone selling your laptop

BOTTOM LINE

I’d add three more BEFORE steps.

1. Decorate your laptop in some unique way that makes it stand out and easily spotted during a search. Like a bumper sticker.

2. Be careful what you store on your laptop. We keep a list of passwords, bank accounts, etc in Word documents but the documents are password protected. Apply a password to anything you don't want others to read.

3. Your laptop may be stolen at your workplace. Could be the cleaning staff, someone who broke in, or a late working co-worker. You never know. I purchased a lock and chain to attach the laptop to my desk. Sort of like a bicycle chain.

P.S.

Laptops are an amazing achievement of technology. Check out http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/18/amazing-facts-and-figures-about-the-evolution-of-hard-disk-drives/ for a history of hard drive sizes. I never knew there were refrigerator-sized hard drives in the 70’s. My oldest memory is from the 80s when the hard drive looked like a stack of vinyl LP records.