Help Stolen Laptop

I know this will probably do no good at all
But I live in Eugene, Or
and My Dell e1705 Was Stolen today at my church
so i know there isnt alot of people on here from eugene but who knows it might be on ebay or something
oh also is there anything i can do, on like insurence or something?

thanks
(can a mod fix my title, i spelled stolen wrong)

 

make sure to notify dell. if someone tries to register or get service with your service tag, they'll know it's stolen.

(also, title fixed)

good luck and keep your eyes on ebay as well; that's a good idea. file a police report. also, where was it stolen from? you may be able to get compensated via insurance; long shot, but you never know.

 

thanks!
This is the funny thing, it was stolen at my church, i put it in a back room and went up from for a hour and came back and it was gone. I thought someone was playing a joke but that wasnt it.
But the church is checking if their insurence covers it.

 

He said it was stolen at church, if you go to church near the university or you are a student there you should notify DPS.

I'll keep a look out though. Hopefully the thief left the stickers on there for easy identification, but I doubt it.

 

Sorry for your loss. Whats even more surprising is that it happend at church.
Try contacting the pastor. Maybe he can keep an eye on it if it does appear to show up. I hope it eventually shows up. Its a beautiful system

 

Thanks, Yeah i hope whoever leaves the stickers on and someone notices it.
I did notify the pastor, i dont think anyone at the church did it, we were all in service. but the backdoor was unlocked. But the Laptop was around $15,000 of sound equpment when is weird because done of that is missing either.

Luckly i backed up all my stuff 5 days ago and I'm a photographer and had like 6,000 pictures so im happy i still haev those, but computer im on now is so lame, i cant do anything on it lol

 

Best of luck getting it back. What is the world coming to when someone steals if from a church!

 

I know someone that stole money from the donations basket, which was in a locked room while church was in service. Some people just steep real low.

BTW, did you have it set up on a network? You might be able to ping it if you have the IP set manually. Shoot, nevermind, I think doing that is a lost cause.

 

i have my sisters msn on and if he gets it loged in and is near internet it will sign in all my things and i will know that he is in.
im probably going to change all my passwords, except my msn for now

 

Wow that sucks man, hope you get it back some how, people out there are very ****ing stupid, and in a church?!

 

That easliy fixed so it wont automatically sign you in, but still a good thing to keep an eye on it.

 

yeah i know, but still

 

Dont wanna judge anything, but just to think about it...maybe it was teenagers or children at the church? I dont think any adult going to church would have the concions to take another individuals belongings and in this case your laptop. Maybe the church has security cameras? Or maybe you can ask other people in the church if they saw it on that day?

 

everyone was in service, and the back door was unlocked. I'm going to call the usher that walks around the church during service is he saw anything.
its deffenlatly weird, that all the sound equipment wasnt touch but my laptop bag in the corner is gone.

 

sorry man, notify dell as soon as possible, I suppose you didnt have the bios password enabled?, its always a good idea to set that, as its quite difficult to get past it with out going through dell

 

no i didnt :-(
Im going to do a police report tomorrow then notify dell

 

anyone at the church know much about you and about your laptop? I don't think any random guy would walk in back and steal a laptop of a church knowing noone will catch them.. too much risk.. maybe someone knew no1 will be around? the sound equipment probably was too much to carry.

anyways, good luck, sorry to hear this.

 

thats what im thinking, people knew i have a laptop, when i first got it a couple months ago i was a little obsessive about it so it was always with me and the only reason i brought it with me today is because i was going to burn some cds with pictures i took for some of the youth that went to camp a couple weeks ago

 

I think it maybe someone from the church. If it was someone outside from the church coming inside to steal, they would have taken the sound equippment too woudnt you think? People outside of the church who come in and take stuff dont usually take stuff so they can use it for themselves...they usually sell it and if that was their motive, taking the sound equippment would have been in their plan too. Maybe im totally off but im just throwing something out.

 

I'd say its good chance it was a regular at the church, that knew where it would be unattended, just cause its a church, that doesnt mean its full of kind hearted be true to your fellow man people, next time, 1, enable the bios password, wont keep it from getting snagged, but will pretty much render it useless, 2, keep it with you, or at least in a more secure spot, it amazes me how many people will just get up and walk away from their laptops in coffee shops , if there isnt anyone I know at the table, I close it up, put it in the bag and take it with me, even if its just to use the can

 

yeah im usally good about taking it with me everywhere i go, but i figured at church it would be fine, it wasnt like it was out in the open. it was in the bag in the back corner behind the sound mixer desk.
But i guess i was wrong
Expenive Mistake

 

Sorry to hear it.

I don't know what kind of sound equipment you're talking about, but typically mixers and speakers are a lot bigger and bulkier then a laptop. If it was an "outside" job, the laptop was probably just the easiest target.

Watch for ebay and local pawn shops. Isn't the U of O there? Look for "for sale" postings on campus and in campus newspapers. You also might want to let campus police know...they can't do anything official, but give them a picture of your lappy as a heads up.

 

Looks like my moms Home Insurance is going to cover it. We don't know how much the deductable is yet though

 

Definatley someone at ur church stole it, how lame and ironic is that? ****ty deal dude. Doesn't the world and people suck?

 

I'm Hoping to get enough to get a new e1705 with the core duo 2

 

well i wish ya luck on that, your darn lucky ur moms insurance is covering it

 

Good luck with the insurance company. Now how did they agree to cover this when it totally has nothing to do with the house?

Seems kinda weird

 

yeah it does, but im not complaining, im waiting to hear back from the church to see if their insurance will cover it

 

what's the world coming to...
Stealing from a place of worship !

Not that it is new though...In India, we often hear hear news of some low-lives stealing Gold canopies and crowns from Temples...

Anyway, from now on, I am definitely going to keep an eye on my laptop all the time whenever I am travelling

 

I put a file in all my root folders called "_This is a STOLEN computer.txt"

The content of the file is:

I've never had a test of this strategy but it might work. Of course, if such a thing happened I would have the police all over whoever returned it in a heartbeat. I may not ask questions but I don't believe in forgiveness either.

 

I password all my computers to help deter theft. Whats nice about the dell is its security is more robust then usual, requiring you to send the laptop back to reset the password.

Also it has that tracking service in the bios if you want to pay for that extra bit.

 

password protect won't stop them from formatting, if i stole it i would format it to sell it or keep it

 

outkast, Bios password. They cant even get to the POST screen without a password.

Hmm.. actually it does post..dosnt it. Anyways you get the point. Without a bios password, its all spare parts. Infact on my dell laptop, if i choose to password my drive (hardware supported), they cant even pull the drive and use it on another laptop.

 

That won't deter theft, just use by the slime who stole it. It will still be long gone.

 

bigfoot, they might not be bothered to steal if if they find they cant use it. Also they might return it to avoid investigation further.

I said it deters theft.. dosnt stop it.

 

I wouldn't put that much trust in people...but it is a good idea. Anyway, some people could hide a "THIS IS A STOLEN LAPTOP.TXT" file in the MediaDirect Partition...that builds on another idea that was mentioned in this thread, plus some people might not format that section of the hard drive to maintain the Dell restore/MediaDirect functionality!

 

The problem is they won't know it's password protected before they grab it, and then they may just throw it in the trash when they find it unuseable.

BTW, I support your idea. Whenever I go on vacation I activate the boot password on my desktop and laptop. However I only assume this will slow down use of the stolen computer allowing me time to change online passwords and logons that might be discovered on the computer.

 

i will have to remember to put the bios password on my new one

**update**
Getting Reciepts and Invoices together for churches insurance.
They are going to look it over but it looks good for getting some money

 

the bios password for dells is pretty good, its nearly impossible to get around without going through dell and giving them the service tag# for the computer, wich when they look it up should come up as stolen, because reporting it to dell should be one of the first things you do when you find out its no longer in your possesion, I'm sure that readers that have been here a while are familiar with the "my kids were playing in the bios and set the password and forgot what it was" then someone replies "if your the orginal owner, call dell and give them the service#, answer their questions and they will fix it for you" then they reply, "I tried that and they wanted to charge me $400, I just need a way to do it myself", thats usally someone with a snag and grab, and according to a fellow I talked to at a dell kiosk, he said that if someone brings one up to them, they look up the service tag info, if it come up as stolen ,they keep it,usually say that it fall under a mandatory mass recall, fill out this form and we'll get back with you, then they contact the person the service tag corresponds to, same as via phone,they wont charge you, they'll just ask you to send the unit in, and if there is no service tag, there is no service, it wont keep it from getting stolen, but the bios level password will make it harder for common quick buck types to get much of anything out of it, and there is a chance of it getting recovered, though only slight

 

regardless the password won't get your computer back, will only protect your information on the laptop. What kind of theif would give ti back to dell? LOL im sure there are ways around it just liek everything else in life.

 

Dell does offer theft protection. In the BIOS, you can set it so that your laptop can be traced if it is stolen (i think that is how it works). I forgot what the program's name is though. My thoughts: just another reason to have outside insurance cover your laptop, and not warranty.

 

afaik there is no backdoor password. Recovery requires sending the laptop in, and that means they can see the service tag is reported as stolen. So at the least, the thief will not get access to your data.

 

Turned in all the information to churches insurance today, and it will be sent in tomorrow, so i will wait and see if they will cover my loss or not.
I hope so because i kinda need the laptop and there is no way i can but another one right now

 

**UPDATE**
Good News, talked to the pastor today and the insurance is going to cover me, i have 2 options, i can get a cash, or i can have them go through there liqudation whatever thing and find me one to replace.....you can see oviously what option im going to choose. MONEY
so they are going to call me and see how much i can get.
So a new laptop is looking closer in my future!

 

glad its working out for you

 

I would also suggest, if it's not already been done, for the pastor to make an announcement at the next service during the same time of your last service when it was stolen.

 

**UPDATE**
So yesterday i signed for a new laptop, Nat. Liqudator is replacing everything, i had to fight a little bit to get the laptop i wanted because they tryed giving me a lame one. But here are the specs im getting
Dell Inspiron e1705/9400
Intel Duo Core 2 T5600 1.83 Ghz
WUXGA 1920x1200 Screen w/ Truelife
2gbs ram
Ati X1400 Video card
120gb hard drive
DVD-RW
Intel Pro Wireless 3945
Bluetooth
Windows MCE

And then they are giving me a new ipod video because they didnt make the one i had stolen, and a new BT mouse, bag and cables

so everything is coming together now