Lost my laptop. Suggestions ?

Ok , long story short :

I was at the bus stop with my girlfriend and I left my bag on the ground leaning against the bench. I had 2 bags, but one was a backpack so I just carried it on my back. My girlfriend took the first seat ( with the bag on the ground to her right ) and I took the last one ( with my gf to my right ).


We were chatting and the bus arrived. We kept talking as we walked inside the bus and neither one of us remembered the bag on the ground. It was out of my sight and I was paying attention to the lady so the bag completely left my mind. My girlfriend was also absorbed in the conversation so she didn't notice. After abour 4-5 mins, I realized I left the bag so I took a cab in the opposite direction to go to the original bus stop only to witness a pretty ****in empty bus stop shelter.


In the bag there was : my new Lenovo T61P 14.1" / 9 cell / 2.0ghz, 2gb DDR2, 100gb SATA , etc.. for school along with a brand new book "Applying Uml and Patterns" by Craig Larman. That's all I had in there.

In total , I lost 2000$ worth of stuff ( 65$ for the book..).

Now , I don't expect anyone to return it for many reasons, but mainly :

1-I had NO identification on the laptop or on any paper in the bag ( None that I'm aware of at least ... )

2-There are passwords on both XP and Ubuntu. ( I doubt someone will go through the effort to hack it to return it to me ... )

3-It's a free 2000$ gift.





However, I don't wan't to call it over just yet. Any POSITIVE suggestions on what you would do in my situation in the coming weeks ? So far I have :

1-Check the web for classified ads of laptop for sale in my area and maybe catch the guy/girl that's might want to sell it.

2- File a declaration at the police station with the serial no. so I can have it back if someone were to return it to the police.

3-Contact city public transportation lost & found in case someone returned it there

4-Contact school lost & found in case someone returned it there, since the book still had my school's library tag on it.

5-Contact Microsoft piracy to report my Vista key as stolen.

All of these actions are based on the assumption that some honest person took it and will realize a student lost something VERY valuable and empathize. However....



Anyway, at least I didn't have any sensitive information

So...Any suggestions ?

 

Contact Lenovo just in case some one calls them with your serial number.

Sorry for your loss.

 

Thanks for the empathy. I forgot to mention that I did call Lenovo and they opened a case so if anyone tries to get repair on the product, they'll let me know.

In a desperate mean I also called one of the major ISPs to know how reverse lookup worked since I have all the MAC adresses on the box. They , obviously, would need a legal incentive to proceed to such a feat.

 

legal incentive like a subpoena where they would be force to give it to you? but the subpoena would require some kind of nudging or incentive.

 

Which country are you in?

Start with cops.If they get it they will call you.Don't give up hope.I have got many things back over years and also returned things I found too.

 

hope you get it back

 

I did the exact same thing - just with my brand spanking new MacBook.. I panicked, it was friday afternoon whereas the offices of the buscompany were closed, but when I called them monday, they had my laptop in custody.

DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE!! Someone might have the heart to return it somewhere.! All the best luck from here

 

Yes, I'll need to investigate on how to get a subpoena against an ISP.

I'm in Canada. Montreal, Québec actually.

Me too. I barely started paying the thing on a student load.

I'm not giving up just yet. I'll contact them ASAP tomorrow morning since they are closed on weekends.

 

Oh, man. Sorry to hear about it. Just keep looking, and keep trying other avenues of methods to search.
And next time, please DO be more careful..

 

Do you have renter's insurance for your apartment/dorm room? If so, it might be covered if you pay a deductible. Look into this.

When I was in college, I paid, like $125 a year or something like that (admittedly, a long time ago) and my posessions up to a certain value were covered, provided I paid the first $250.

P.S. With your next laptop, print a label with your name, address, and phone number. Fix this label to the inside of your battery compartment. It is a place thieves don't often look, and an easy way to prove a machine is yours should it go missing.

 

Check the local pawn shops to make sure they aren't selling it.

 

Yes, and as others have mentioned check local for sale adds, and E-Bay especially. People love to sell stolen stuff more and more on E-bay it seems lately.

I do hope you get your Thinkpad back.

 

Yes. I'm just glad people are being more understanding here than on some others forums I've been asking help on. You have no idea how careful I was with that thing, and the first time I separated myself from it, BAM, lost it. I just didn't wanna ***** and whine about the seats ( me being 1 seat away from the laptop ) so that's why I left it out my sight.

Unfortunately I don't have house insurance that would cover this. Only have life insurance. But I'll definitely label my laptop once I recover/buy a new one.

I've been checking kijiji / ebay / lespac actively the last few days. This is a constant alert for the upcoming weeks.


I'll be checking out the bus stop it was lost at too in case the person tries to reach me via paper ad or something.

 

should have got lojack

 

You must have paid with your credit card. Many credit cards have a "Purchase Protection" policy for 3 months, where during that time, if your purchase is stolen, lost, or damaged, the credit card company will replace/reimburse your purchase.

You should look into that. I know my free Citibank mastercard and TD Green Visa both have this policy. I really hope your CC has this benefit. GL!

 

I'll look into it.

After checking, I'm pretty sure I have that purchase protection on my Visa, however it's been over 90 days since I bought the laptop. Thanks anyway !

 

looks like macs have at least one good feature!

Look here!

 

Make sure to check Craigslist as well. Far more likely than Kijiji that you'd find it there. In addition, you could post an ad on Craigslist that notes what happened to your laptop, and a description. Perhaps even offer a low-grade reward (like $50) for its safe return.

 

Really felt for your lost, hope you can get it back.

I assumed you did check the local police station, I lost my wallet in TTC station Toronto, and the Police Dept. called me at home to notify me, which I did not know.

Would you try to post paper in the bus shelter, with a eg. new hotmail address if someone wants to return with a small price ?

Wish you good luck.

 

Here's an after the fact suggestion that I am afraid will not help.

I got the Lojack coverage for my machine. Even if they replace the hardrive.. with a clean install, the next time the machine is on the net it checks in with Lojack. Since I would have called lojack right away the nextime my system shows up on the net, lowjack would be zerioing in on it.

 

I will definitaly be making some flyers and posting them in the area just in case. Thanks for your advice !

That looks like a perfect solution to protect my laptop once I retrieve/buy a new one !