Laptop: Stolen

Laptop: Stolen

My Stolen Laptop
Update: Insurance has come through! See my comment…

If I had a dog, I suppose I’d lose it, next.

:: sigh ::

This last Sunday night, after I returned home from a quick coffee-run, some miscreant waltzed into my garage and boosted my $1,800 laptop, shown at right. In case some ethical pawn shop owner uses Google to validate their stolen goods, the laptop is a Gateway model 7510GX, serial # N3258 010 02495. Or perhaps you are not intending to be an ethical merchant, but because the mouth-breather who stole my laptop was too stupid (or in too great a hurry) to also steal the attached power converter, you might be trying to lookup suitable power supplies for a Gateway laptop of this model. Well, you’ve come to the right place. If you will reunite me with my laptop, I’ll gladly give you the power supply.

So, having lost my job at CTI last month, I’ve been managing to keep a few sporadic paychecks coming in by doing some freelance work on my laptop: some video editing, video transcoding, audio editing, writing, and so on. Knowing that when it rains, it pours, I should have had my disaster radar up … but I was too relaxed. But now I’m one laptop, several hundred dollars, and gigabytes of data poorer for it.

The thug who boosted my laptop will likely never read this post, but I’m hoping he (or she — I discriminate equally against lady felons) does because I have something to say to you.

You should know that I am actively praying for you — I pray that you someday learn the meaning of love, respect, dignity, and honor — even to strangers. I pray that you learn that thievery does violence not only to your neighbor but to your very own soul. I pray that you realize that one day the accounts will be balanced. And on that day you will sorely regret every last bauble you pocketed, filched, or purloined.

I pray that you encounter the enormously rich grace freely given by Christ that, if you understood its value, you would steal if you could but ultimately do not need to. I pray that you are paralyzed by your conscience, burned by your conviction, and galvanized by your guilt.

But most of all I pray that you simply wake up. Whatever need, addiction, passion, or deception holds you in its grip can be broken. You must awaken to the moral freedom that only the slaves of righteousness enjoy. For, you see, now you are a slave to evil. You may not think it, but you are. You think you simply chose to liberate a laptop but you did not. You were driven to it by a lifetime of bad choices that have ingrained in you a slavery to the habit of thievery. And even if this was the first thing you have ever stolen in your miserable little life, you are still a slave because when you should have chosen to do the right thing, you could not. Truly, that there was even a choice to be made reveals the depth of your enslavement.

I do not despise you. I do not hate you.

I pity you.

For your fate is far, far, worse than you can possibly imagine. I lost a laptop last night. Long ago, you lost your soul.

Rich.

[tags]BlogRodent, laptop, theft, stolen, Gateway, serial number, thievery, loss[/tags]

12 thoughts on “Laptop: Stolen

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  2. Common Swift

    I’m sorry for your laptop loss Rich.

    quote:

    “I pray that you are paralyzed by your conscience, burned by your conviction, and galvanized by your guilt.”

    I prefer:

    “I pray that you are paralyzed by your guilt, burned by your conscience, and galvanized to take a leap.”

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  4. Rich Post author

    Good news! Yesterday, I spoke with the lady who is my insurance adjustor for AAA insurance. After sending her three quotes for comparable laptops (I called Best Buy, Dell, and Gateway and got quotes and specs from all three and sent them to her), I spent some time with her on the phone reviewing the software that I had on the system which will need to be re-registered and replaced (much of the software would now require a new license since I don’t always buy a new license when the latest upgrades come out, and some software is licensed to the hardware not the individual).

    Long story short, she’s cutting a check to cover more than the expense of the hardware.

    Wow, am I so relieved. Props to AAA!

    Now, I just need to find employment before grocery money and mortgage payments eat into my insurance payout.

    Rich
    BlogRodent

  5. carl

    Now, I just need to find employment before grocery money and mortgage payments eat into my insurance payout.

    I feel you on that one. How is it going?

  6. Rich Post author

    Thanks, Carl, for asking. I’m still doing some freelance work, helping keep us afloat a few weeks longer. Meanwhile, I’ve had two face-to-face interviews with companies locally, and two phone interviews with companies in other states (one in Wisconsin, and a church in New Mexico). I’m hopeful, and positive, but I’m still applying for other jobs in case these don’t pan out.

    Meanwhile, I’ve received the check from my insurance company in the mail. I haven’t cashed it yet. It’s sitting on the fridge. Hopefully, we won’t need it before our bank account goes belly-up.

    Rich.
    BlogRodent

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