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Thief Returns Stolen Laptop Contents On USB Stick
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.'"
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.
Clearly!
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This story makes me feel sad for humanity.
which is totally what she said
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.
10 years of work on his laptop without a single backup?
Ten years of work? What does this guy teach, English Lit?
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Someone stole a 10-year old laptop? How much is that worth on the black market? More than the thumb drive possibly. Or maybe he just really needed a machine on which to test DSL.
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my butt! I'd feel it too if he had backed up his hard drive at home and wasn't commending a criminal who just stole his freaking laptop!
I'm not sure I feel that same sense of hope when we have someone teaching at a higher level institution who leaves ten years of his work up to chance.
He's "lucky" it was stolen. There's a lot more things that can happen to a laptop that can render its data unrecoverable.
Maybe he'll learn his lesson and store his data in more than one place, lest he become devastated once more.
Kudos to the thief, though.
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.
A single CD being shared by two people? Sounds like copyright infrignment to me.
I have a feeling the RIAA lawyers will hunt down both perpetrators before the cops can finish their donuts.
Pretty cool story!
A long, long, time ago, I moved into the campus dorms a week early to lay claim to the only network port in the room (yes, back then there was only one). Only thing is that the dining halls hadn't opened. I went out to grab a bite to eat and got my wallet pick-pocketed, leaving me without money for food for days. A few weeks later, a package arrived with my empty wallet, even with my credit cards, ID, etc... the only thing missing? Cash (of course), and the creepy part: the guy took all of the pictures of family and friends I had. Rather than making me feel hope for humanity, it showed me how creepy we can be.
Then, he would have only lost 1 year of research! For a professor using a computer, he doesn't sound like he has a lot of common sense.
I am glad he got his research back, though. Very kind of that thief.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The story of the thief who returns someone's goods with some opera tickets and an apology comes to mind -- when the victim goes to see the opera, the thief cleans out the victim's house.
Kinda makes me wonder if there's a rootkit on that drive for the purposes of emptying out this gent's bank accounts.
Also, wtf, no backups? ffs.
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.
-- Home is where you eat your heart out.
Genius detective work there.
which is totally what she said
the thief is a student or a fellow teacher :)
Exactly. Someone he knows who was having trouble looking the guy in the eyes. Student most likly.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
His butt was saved by an unusually considerate thief, but I hope he learns his lesson and makes backups of his life's work on a regular basis. There's really no excuse for losing 10 years worth of work because your laptop was stolen. What if the thing caught on fire? Or the hard drive self destructed? It's ridiculous not to back up something that important.
I read the internet for the articles.
It's not prohibitively expensive, and quite good quality furniture. Plus, it's ridiculously easy to match ikea furniture with other furniture to create a room with a theme.
Okay, now that I've gotten that rant out of the way...
I'm sure that the police would want to examine that USB stick quite closely, as it could provide evidence of who the criminals were. Unfortunately giving it to the police would mean he would not be able to use it himself. If he withholds it from the police, he could be prosecuted for withholding evidence, and if he *were* to use it himself and then give it to the police, he would be considered to be tampering with the evidence. If he witholds evidence or tampers with the evidence, he would not be able to claim any loss on theft insurance, because the sheer convenience factor of having some unknown thieves send you back your data on a USB stick would likely be found to be implausible (even if it were true), and any insurance claim could be seen as an attempt to defraud the insurance company.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Unfortunately, I have been bad at backing up my computer.
This remind me I have still some data with no backup... :/
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. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
But that might be Stockholm syndrome speaking.
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
im 35 years old, i listened to iron maiden at their prime, listened to metal for my teenage years, yet i didnt see any problem with abba even then. good music, is good music, regardless of genre.
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No, the quote was used in the wrong context. He was not referring to his laptop/data but his calendar which was in the stolen backpack that was returned by the thief (backpack with calendar, other documents etc) a few hours later. Then, a week later he also got the USB with his work for which we simply know that it was not backed up well...
Way to go Telegraph. Read this instead: http://www.thelocal.se/29636/20101015/
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A professor stores 10 years of his work in a single laptop without any back up? I just lost all hope for humanity. If that prof is from the School of Liberal Arts, I lost all hope for humanities too ;-)
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
In Germany, wallet thieves often take the valuables and throw the wallet (with ID card and whatever else) in the nearest post box and it gets returned to its owner.
Saves the victim a load of hassle at least.
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There's a surprising number of people who will classify entire genres of music as crap without considering that talented musicians can make an appearance anywhere. (Example: Prince. Once of the most versatile and talented musicians around today - largely disdained because his music is "pop" ). The funny part is that the same people will listen with steadfast determination to their own chosen genres, apparently deaf to the fact that the ratio of crap to talent is the same there as well.
Somehow I don't think an officer would understand: "all I did was DD the contents to an ISO!"
which scares me. basic IT != rocket science.
Blah blah, theft, nice thief, should have backups etc....but I'm more concerned that he could fit 10 years of work on a single usb stick. I guess some jobs generate more data than others but that's pretty lean research work. I guess maybe some academics don't generate more than their own writing.
it astounds me how often people just can't wrap their mind around this!
I honestly know people that refuse to backup files that they NEED because they think of them like paper documents. "if it's still there today, it'll still be there tomorrow. it's in a safe place!"
I even have a friend who teaches that thinks that he can't backup student's submissions because, get this: he think's it's plagiarism. he feels that making copies of documents is like taking it for your own.
ever time I yell at him, telling him what a horrible idea it is to keep everything on a single external hard drive. does he listen? not yet!
Who steals a 10-year-old Laptop?
Not really tampering...
His prints will be on the stick regardless if he 'finds' it in an envelope.
He wouldn't know it's his data until he sticks it in a pc and looks at it.
So:
1. Receive new stick (physically pull from envelope?)
2. Insert into PC
3. Realize what it is, copy all data off
4. Hand over to police
What he failed to notice is that the file where he keeps students grades have been slightly altered!
I love IKEA furniture. I just bought $1000 worth of it to furnish my new apartment, and that money went a long way (I got a bedroom, living room, and kitchen, and bathroom out of it). Aside from that, I felt vindicated that my childhood lego skills came in handy. I'd say that IKEA furniture is legos for adults... but who am I kidding? Legos are legos for adults.
I certainly would have been happy too. Sure the original act is bad blabla but hey, when you get 10y of data back, you're happy.
Thieves are stealing from people or companies directly, but they don't usually mean harm.
The lobbies, companies, government, etc, steal for people far larger amounts every single day - and they don't give you "your data back" all that easily either.
It's all a matter of perception and point of view. I'm all for respectful thiefs. Be it common ones or larger ones I wrote about. Since we can't actually suppress thieves:p
Did the CD have ANY value to the thief? If not, they MIGHT just do that, esp. if they respect you.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
10 years of data on the laptop - are they implying that said stolen laptop was 10 years old? And thief bothered, not only to steal it but also boot it up? Sweden is scary sometimes.
That and "good news everyone! my data isnt lost afterall"
You realize that the ENTIRE KING JAMES BIBLE is only 4.8MB in size?
Not everyone's research needs 40G of storage! How many lines of code can you write in a day? Maybe 10kB, if you're really good? 1000 days of work is just 10MB.
Let me ask you this, what kind of wasteful drivel are you producing that requires 40G per year?
...the country that brought us their massages, little gummy fish, and that legendary muppet chef, now brings us great höpen för åll thé frickén wöörlden. That is, until the professor clicks "gEt_uR_fiLezz_bäcken.exe" on an unfortunate colleague's borrowed laptop.
...keeps the only copy of their past 10 years' work on their laptop? While the incident may have helped restore the poor prof's faith in humanity, it has knocked mine down a few notches knowing that people like this are teaching in our universities.
That's why I use Dropbox; not only is it saved to the ethereal cloud, but a hard copy of all my work is on my wife's computer.
I like IKEA too. We have a lot of IKEA stuff in our house and it looks nice and didn't break the bank. When we remodeled our kitchen we went with IKEA cabinets. We love our kitchen. it looks fantastic and everything works great. We were warned that everything is particle board and told that we should get hardwood cabinets etc. That's complete crap. Will hardwood cabinets last 100 years? yes. Will IKEA cabinets last longer than 25 years? probably not, but who the fuck cares? for the price we paid, we can afford to replace our cabinets every 10 years and still not spend as much as those stupid hardwood cabinets
I think bringing a hub would have been cheaper.
Flash memory is so efficient that you can store 10 years of scientific research on one USB stick. Now, that's progress!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
What makes you think the thief returned it? He probably took the cash and tossed it and some university groundskeeper found it in the bushes and returned it.
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.
If it was a think pad the thief could have just yanked out the hard disk and mailed him that. Would have taken a lot less of his time to do.
Well, so long as they send back my Creedence 8-tracks, I'll abide.
-The Dude
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)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Depends what the research covers as to the volume of data. Imagine if you were studying land use over a few years and had aerial, satellite imagery, or numerous vector datasets? You can quickly exceed the 40GB with source and derived data.
I see a problem at step 2. Why in the hell would you insert a USB stick that you FOUND into a PC?
SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
Maybe the thief wanted access to the "unnamed professor's" data for whatever reason, but didn't feel justified in depriving him of it permanently. Maybe he also wants him to continue his research so he can steal more of it later. I'd tell him to take a good hard look at his colleagues and students.
You must have not that much work or that stack of papers on top of your wife's computer would get pretty inconvenient after awhile.
Now if the thief had mailed the actual laptop back, with $100 cash for pain and suffering and then killed himself to make sure he never did it again, that would be progress.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
You have an 8-track player in your car? Cool. ;-)
I use it too, but only for personal data. Work stuff is backed up to the network and then tape.. you'd think a University would have a similar system.
which is totally what she said
IKEA actually makes some decent softwood furniture. Sure it's not hardwood, but it's certainly a step above particle board. Their hemnes line is all made from solid pine. And honestly, they specialize in furniture for small spaces, like my city apartment. I tried going the cheapest route by buying at thrift stores, but the furniture you find there is usually huge, made of solid heavy wood, and in need of a fair deal of repair. Further, since IKEA furniture comes flat packed, I was able to bring home a bed, desk, book case, dining room table, and dresser by myself in a subaru outback wagon.
A good friend of mine in Berlin had her MacBook stolen over a year ago. In May, she received a Facebook message from a woman in Tunisia who had bought the notebook, found my friend's personal data and wondered if it had been stolen. Originally the plan was to simply send the personal data, since my friend had already purchased a new notebook, but in the end the woman decided to ship the notebook to my friend in Germany without any compensation (my friend paid the shipping costs on delivery). The woman was apparently overjoyed at recently giving birth to twins, and simply wanted to do the right thing. I personally witnessed the arrival and unboxing of the returned laptop.
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If you're the type of person that had 10 years worth of data with no backups, then its not inconceivable that you'd insert a found USB stick into a PC.
Personally, I'd just stick it into a pc at a kinkos or net cafe first.
fellow teacher would have given back the laptop, but never his scientific work
Probably someone found it and returned, not the thief.
I live next to a bus station. I find wallets all the time usually with ID's in them, when I have the time I go and hand them to the owner if I happen to go that way. All this because I know all the shit and lines you have to endure here to get your ID's back. A few years ago you could have found even debit cards in them, not any more.
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.
Why would you think that anyone who hadn't backed up 10 years of irreplaceable data would see the danger in plugging in the USB stick?
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
He's from Sweden. Maybe he was involved in studying human sexuality as seen in modern digital media. He may not have felt the need to back up his data because, let's face it, most of /. probably has a 40GB porn collection to lend him just in case.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
The University does have backup options I am sure. They can't force idiots to take advantage of them though. (I work at a University where they offer network backups and you would be surprised at how many people lose data due to dead hard drives and no backup.)
"But this one goes to 11!"
Why is this professor, who values his 10 years of digital work, keeping all his eggs in one basket? That guy should be regularly backing up data that is irreplaceable. Theft, loss, hardware failure or even operator error could all lead to a devastating loss.
We assume that thieves have no conscience at all, otherwise they wouldn't be thieves.
The reality is that they have a mixed conscience, and might in some way feel better about what they're doing if they're not entirely thieving about things.
More often than not, if a thief has the chance to steal some money but not all the money, they will leave some of it there.
This is a very idiotic story. What is next, are they going to praise a rapist for wearing a condom?
Maybe it was all just a trick by his friends to teach him the importance of backing up. Like when a parent hides a kids bike to teach them they should put it up?
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It sounds like this thief taught the professor a lesson:
, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen.
Why did a professor have 10 years of work on a laptop hard drive with no backup?
One, 10 years of data and no backups? The Professor is an idiot.
Second, if I were the theif, I think I might have made some subtle changes to the Professors data, before sending it back. Just for a laugh.
A single CD being shared by two people? Sounds like copyright infrignment to me.
Yep. Two total cases of copyright infringement (one per person).
And the result will be DMCA letters sent to the gas stations to stop supplying that car with gas, followed by DMCA letters to the grocery store demanding they stop supplying the infringers with food and drinks they can consume, to enable them to continue to infringe, followed up ultimately, by a DMCA Cease and Decist letter to the almighty God, c/o the church they are members of them, demanding that the lord almighty cease and decist allowing these alleged infringers to continue to exist.
WTF? Dumbass.
Sounds like Government.
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If they can't do that is it okay of they send you a recording of The Eagles?
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was that there was a README.1ST file in the USB. When I opened it, it started with 'Here are all your files, but I must point out to you, in your dissertation...'
He was saying I was WRONG on some points in my dissertation, that mother******! I hope he ROTS in HELL!
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And the grand prize of commenter who makes the least sense goes to...
I am not devoid of humor.
This story does bring promise and makes me lose hope as well.....since when does a professor that knows how valuable his work is, not have backups of his work ? Yes the thieves were amazing and I would hope that if ever that happened to me I would be that lucky, but I would not need it, I have my backups!Everyone should have backups...hell a 1tb drive at bestbuy is only 100$....come on!
And he gets the joke. hooray!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
This does not prove that the thief is good person. I think the thief is someone close to the professor. But ones i was stopped by some guy in isolated place somewhere in Africa. He took everything i have, including mobile phone, shoes, eye glasses. But he was good enough to give me money for taxi. He even showed me where i can get transportation.
All the professor's calculations and hypotheses had been corrected.
This theif should come and steal my laptop some time.