Well I was out on a business dinner last night at a fancy restaurant in Northwest Austin. I come out to find my rear driver side door window busted and my top of the line Samsonite laptop bag and work laptop stolen. Ahhh!!! Crappp!!!

Got the window replaced this morning. Some minor scratches on the leather seat due to glass falling in but some significant damage to the inside of the door panel due to the falling glass. Lovely.

Now I am realizing how much I had in my laptop bag:
- prescription meds
- glasses
- charger for my personal laptop, phone, an tablet
- work notebook full of irreplaceable notes


The good news is my laptop drive is encrypted and we use high strength passwords at my employer (Cray, Inc.). The IT guys have a program that checks in whenever the laptop is on the network and the idiots that stole it put it within range of a public WiFi hotspot this morning. We were able to wipe it and brick it so they can't use it. That felt good. New laptop arriving Monday - thank goodness for cloud storage - all my files are safe and secure.

I really get pissed and morally corrupt people that do stuff like this. The amount of wasted time and money is going to cost me is significant. I just wish I had caught them doing it. A good baseball bat to the kneecap and head would have been a great return for breaking into my truck.

 

Then you'd go to jail and the real bad guy would walk.

Welcome to America

 

Aren't the little sensors up near the upfitters supposed to trip the alarm if something like that happens?

 

Perimeter & Cellular notification alarm upgrade coming your way SOON

Sorry - its happened to me TWICE....I have vaults in all our vehicles now (for guns etc) and I RARELY leave anything in the vehicle.

 

As the IT guy who has to document and write these losses up, STOP LEAVING YOUR STUFF IN YOUR CAR!

It astounds me every time I have to do an interview on a corporate laptop theft and the employees say "I never thought it could happen to me".

Sorry to hear about the damage.

 

with a permanent and really bad limp I would hope

 

I detest thieves...absolutely detest them. The damage they created and the items they stole that you need (meds) is way more valuable than the few bucks they will get when they sell it for their next drugs.

That being said, I would never leave a laptop on the back seat. It would be in that locking box under the seat where nobody could see it. It's sad we have to hide everything but it's unfortunately the world we live in now.

 

Quite honestly, I have no problem that you left your valuables in your locked vehicle. That is your right, and that is the way it should be.

I suspect the alarm should have gone off due to the ultrasonic interior protection.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your belongings.

 

At least you didn't say something like "AUSTIN is sure going down hill!" I'm on a local crime watch-type of Facebook page, and we're seeing more of this kind of stuff all the time. Usually, about the third comment is something like "Our little town (125,000) is getting terrible. I'm going to move away from all this crime!" My comment is always "We're going to see more and more of this until we stop treating the crackheads like victims instead of criminals."

Next time, when your alarm sounds and you confront the puke, you'll probably have to shoot him when he attacks you in his drug-crazed state. Just sayin'...

 

That sucks man, sorry it happened and I'm glad you guys at least bricked it so the scumbag can't use it. Hope you get your truck fixed up back to new.

 

Canada's laws are even worse

 

That really sucks bud!

 

you just have to hope he falls down the stairs when running away...a few times!

 

sorry to hear about your woe's.

The proposed reciprocal action reminds me of a true story of a mob of 20 rioters trespassing onto a property carrying bats, shovels, rakes, and demanding for the occupants of the property to come forth . As the mob started banging on the property owners door...and while his wife and children were in terror...the owner open the door and began shooting his correctly registered rifle into the ground in the hopes that it would deter the mob. soon there after, the property owner was arrested and charged with using force greater than what was presented. so basically, since no one in the mob had a gun, the legal limit of force allowed was to meet the mob with a shovel, rake, bat etc.


back to your story, so basically, if you catch someone violating your property and engaging in a theft, its unlikely that you would be able to meet the threat with a bat to the knee or other force greater than the threat presented.

be also careful about attacking someone who is retreating from your property as a person in retreat is legally no longer considered a threat.

 

Also has to be "dark" with no lights on