Thief Returns Stolen Laptop Contents On USB Stick 352
While it's true that Sweden is responsible for unleashing IKEA and ABBA on humanity, not everything they produce is terrible. Their thieves are some of the most considerate in the world. An unnamed professor at Umeå University received a USB stick with all his data after his laptop was stolen. From the article: "The professor, who teaches at Umeå University in northern Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen. But to his surprise, a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick. 'I am very happy,' the unnamed professor told the local Västerbottens-Kuriren newspaper. 'This story makes me feel hope for humanity.'"
A pickpocket did something similar for me (Score:2, Funny)
He took the time to scan money he stole from me and provide me a convenient pdf file.
I feel so much better about humanity.
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Kinf Theives? (Score:5, Funny)
I have a feeling the RIAA lawyers will hunt down both perpetrators before the cops can finish their donuts.
ABBA (Score:5, Funny)
I'm listening to Abba right now, you insensitive clod!
In Sweden, stealing laptops is The Name Of The Game! Obviously, The Winner Takes it All except he brings back some of it's MP3 on a USB stick to the Dancing Queen, who had been sending out an S.O.S. She then says to the thief Thank You For The Music, followed by Voulez-Vous?. At which point the story turns to swedish erotica which is not appropriate to relate here.
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I don't know... (Score:3, Funny)
Uh, that doesn't sound all that creepy to me. Yeah, someone who stole my laptop looked at its contents. Yeah it's an invasion of privacy, but you have to assume it happened regardless. Getting the data back at that point is pure positive IMO.
To make it more creepy to get your data back, it'd have to be something like all your pr0n, only sorted by type and quality or with photoshopped annotations. Or your non-pr0n data like your documents but with pr0n inserted into them. That'd be both creepy and potentially devastating... "Oh good I got my data back just in time for my presentation to the reagents tomorrow!"
Re:I don't know... (Score:2, Funny)
just in time for my presentation to the reagents
I bet he'll get a reaction.
Re:10 years worth of data on a laptop (Score:4, Funny)
It sounds like the thief would have been kinder to steal a newer machine for the professor, preload it with his data, and send *that* back to him. :)
Love thy thief (Score:5, Funny)
But that might be Stockholm syndrome speaking.
10 year old laptop? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hope for humanity... (Score:1, Funny)
Hey,
He's is from Sweden for god's sake, didn't you hear about Stockholm syndrome?
Ah Sweden... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I don't know... (Score:3, Funny)
Heh. Now I'm imagining him giving a presentation to an audience of beakers, one full of powdered sulfur, another with a 1-molar HCL solution, and so on.
And oh, Mr. Sulfur is very offended by the salacious content in this presentation! The good Professor won't be getting tenure at Schizo U.!
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of when a friend had their radio stolen from their car, however, the thief took the time slimjim the door rather then bust his window. He even locked it up after he was finish. Just because you're gonna be a thief, doesn't mean you have to be a jerk about it.
I think it goes more like:
Couple arrive home from vacation to find their house was broken into and wiped clean. Thieves were nice enough to have left the roll of film from their stolen camera, and most of their bathroom toiletries. So the couple filed their police report, brushed their teeth, and went to sleep on the floor.
A week later after they got the film developed, turns out they had a few extra blurry pictures taken by the thieves of some toothbrushes jammed up someone's ass.
The real Slashdot angle here? (Score:3, Funny)
Flash memory is so efficient that you can store 10 years of scientific research on one USB stick. Now, that's progress!
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:5, Funny)
Ha! I hear in downtown Baltimore, junkies will break car windows just to rifle through the ashtray for loose pocket change. Some people post signs saying "No valuables inside", but it doesn't work, or is viewed as an invitation (some thieves break in anyway, and leave their own sign: "You're right! But I checked anyway").
Best approach seems to be to just leave the windows open. :-P
The laptop huh? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:5, Funny)
One time I was at a restaurant in my hometown of Baltimore, and someone smashed the window in and stole my briefcase which I carelessly left on the back seat. Unfortunately for them, it contained nothing but 2 weeks of my student's homework and 2 textbooks.
I hope someone learned a lesson : )
-Dom
Re:Same in Germany for wallets (Score:4, Funny)
For more on this idea, read Larry Niven's "Flatlander", originally published in the March 1967 "Worlds of If"
"See them all? Sixty-four million people in Los Angeles alone. Eighteen billion in the whole world. Suppose there was a law against picking pockets? How would you enforce it?" She deftly extracted the cash from my wallet and handed the wallet back. "Get yourself a new wallet, and fast. It'll have a place for your address and a window for a tenth-star stamp. Put your address in right away, and a stamp, too. Then the next guy who takes it can pull out the money and drop your wallet in the nearest mailbox -- no sweat. Otherwise you lose your credit cards, your ident, everything." She stuffed two hundred-odd stars in cash between her breasts, flashing me a parting smile as she turned.
"Thanks," I called. Yes, I did. I was still bewildered, but she'd obviously stayed to help me. She could just as easily have kept wallet and all.
"No charge," she called back, and was gone.
Re:LOL (Score:3, Funny)
I'm reminded of a little joke myself:
Once upon a time Satan challenged Jesus to a programming contest. Christ sits down to a Commodore 64 and begins slowly pecking out the beginnings of a "hello world", while Satan conjures up a super computer, grows extra appendages, and begins coding like an army of hellish fiends. After a short while, Satan begins cackling madly, certain he's won the contest, while Christ just muddles slowly through. Suddenly, the power goes out. When God comes to judge the contest he declares Jesus the clear winner. When asked why, he answers, unlike Jesus, Satan had no program at all, because Jesus saves.
Or something like that.
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:2, Funny)
Q: Why didn't the cat drink its milk
A: because it was dead