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

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.”

(The Local via Neatorama. title pic via Flickr user Ambuj Saxena)

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Robert Quigley