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.'"
Backup ffs! (Score:3, Insightful)
This story makes me feel sad for humanity.
LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait, what? (Score:2, Insightful)
Hope for humanity... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that considerate, or really creepy ? First you get your laptop stolen, then you get proof that the thief was rifling through your data and evidently thought some of it was important enough to back up and send to you at their own expense. I don't know if 'hope' is the right word to express what I'd be feeling.
Re:LOL (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:5, Insightful)
See, I don't see that as any specific kindness. Honestly that sounds like the thief was less dickish than they might of been but there is nothing kind about stealing your property.
Now if say he broke into you car and all he took was the bag of groceries out of the trunk you were on the way home with well, we might say they must have been hungry and it was kind of them to do the littlest damage possible, I guess, but there is nobody who "needs" a CD changer, that is just theft and vandalism and I really don't feel much need to excuse the guy the perp.
What's fucking wrong with Abba ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:2, Insightful)
This could also be serving self-interest of keeping a low profile. Smashing a window attracts a lot more immediate attention than fumbling with a lock.
It will be immediately obvious that the car has been busted, the police might get called sooner, resulting in a catch of the thief still nearby
Genre bias (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's fucking wrong with Abba ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sweden gave us ABBA.
Canada gave us Celine Dion.
The US gave us Hanson.
England gave us Coldplay.
Everybody is guilty of incredibly annoying but not quite bad enough to stay off the radio music.
Grades? (Score:2, Insightful)
What he failed to notice is that the file where he keeps students grades have been slightly altered!
Re:Backup ffs! (Score:5, Insightful)
Congratulations. You apparently have less empathy than a common thief.
To be fair, less empathy than a rather uncommon thief.
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Something similar but creepier happened to me.. (Score:3, Insightful)
That goes to show that we fear social networks sharing this same kind of pictures with the world, because it is like a one-way looking glass into our life for an interrogator's anonymous perspective.
A thief's anonymity protects them, while we feel compromised never knowing how this thief could return to our life, and how they'll exploit weaknesses found by their original break-in. That is the true reason why we reinstall Windows when spyware hits our internet connected PC's --er, besides the predominant "man-hours saved" mentality.
Sounds risky to me (Score:3, Insightful)
Contacting your victim sounds risky to me. Could report you to the police. Then the cops can put your fingerprints in some database. Then they can maybe trace the mail you sent, and start asking your neighbors about people who would fit the profile for doing this. (20s-30s, white, Swedish)
That's a good start... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Genre bias (Score:1, Insightful)
The problem with subjectivity is that it's well... Very subjective.
Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
He had 10 years of his work on one hard drive and didn't ever do any backups?
Wow.
It seems you can be really stupid and still become a professor.
Re:Same in Germany for wallets (Score:3, Insightful)
The reason for throwing the wallet in the post box is that it prevents it from being found until the thief is gone. Post boxes are secure. It's nothing to do with ethics.
Re:Not everything the swedish produce is terrible? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Honor Amongst Thieves (Score:3, Insightful)
Often, the data on the computer is worth more to you than the computer. The data is irreplaceable, the laptop is just hardware.
As much as they stole his property, they gave him back the only thing he cared about. I'm not saying it was kind, per se, but it was fairly thoughtful (for someone who has just stolen things from you).
Wasn't there a story only a few months back here on Slashdot where a lady had had () stolen and basically said she didn't care about the laptop, but wanted her data back?