Laptop Stolen

Hey guys,

My sz680 was just stolen last night from my friend's car. I was wondering if you guys knew what the appropriate steps to take are (aside from filing a police report). I read online that some service centers will flag the serial # as stolen, but sonystyle said they don't do that.

any advice is appreciated

 

damn, that really sucks, not sure about any other steps, report it to the police, check if there's any cctv camera's around your friend's car.

 

Nothing you can do that's worth trying. Unless you have remote access software on the laptop.


For future reference:

I personally have LogMeIn installed on my laptop and have it set to start on boot up. I can then log in to my LogMeIn Control panel using another PC to see if the Laptop is connected Online or not. If it's connected online I can take over the Laptop and before the thief will be able to stop anything, I can get the IP by quickly running IPconfig or send myself an E-mail. Then I can give the IP to police and Look up where IP is from.

Someone should write a program that Auto sends the IP info that your laptop uses to your E-mail once a day or when/however you config it. That would be very useful, as most thieves are likely to test notebook out at least once or twice before formating the drive.

 

Definitely report, maybe it's covered by your friend's insurance as well and you might check craig'slist and if you're lucky be able to find it and/or buy it back

 

well they have that laptop Lojack software which, once reported stolen automatically sends the ip every 15 min to the company, which then the ip is then given to the police to track

dell and hp and maybe one other actually have it in the bios too so replacing the hard drive does not delete the service - itsd about $50 a year, less if you buy more than one year at once


hey ng - does you or your parents have renters or homeowners insurance? they could easily report it stolen from their house (whcih hopefully you havent told the real story to the police yet) and they will give you a refund minus the deductible because most home/renters insurance cover laptops, but could have a $500 deductible (usually thats the norm/max) but atleast its something

 

Sorry about your stolen Sony...

Don't forget the most important risk is identity theft if you had any data on the laptop that could allow access to your accounts, ID, SS#, etc. The Windows password remember feature could make it easy for someone if your account is not password protected or if it wasn't My SZ680 was stolen from my office 2 days ago. The police gave me 800 numbers for the 3 major credit agencies (Experian et al). Call any one of them and they will implement a free 90 day doublecheck policy for any new lines of credit that are opened in your name, and the service extends across all 3 major credit tracking agencies. You will also have access to a free copy of your credit report. For $65 they will add a service that surveys all your credit accounts 24 hours a day for unusual activity such as changing billing information, names, account numbers, etc.

The cost of your precious SZ is nothing compared to what the theft could ultimately cost in the hands of a saavy criminal.

Inspice is a service everyone should read about, too ( www.inspice.com). Portable One bought a bulk license for this software and includes a free download for every P1 customer after they heard one too many stories like these. One of the many reasons I've bought my last 4 notebooks from them.

 

Yeah -- my computer is bios pw protected and has fingerprint security (both at boot and on vista) -- i dont know how hard it is to bypass the bios pw

thanks for the tip on the credit agencies -- I will give them a call today

thanks for the support

my friend's car insurance does not cover personal belongings within the car (sucks, i know)

my homeowner's insurance does cover theft during travel -- I am considering filing under that

 

Ouch, sorry about that.

I'd almost break into a car for a sz680 though! , just kidding but if he left it in plain sight it was bound to happen.

 

yah i would def tell ur home insurance that you were robbed at the house that way theres no complications - but that would mean u would have to tell the police the same thing

 

yah, the laptop was mine, and no it was not in plain sight -- was in a messenger bag that was under the front seat -- my friend's bag was on the seat in the back and they broke into the car through the back window

 

bummer, a friend of mine cars was broken into at work. she had her school bag with absolutely no monetary value items in there and they ended up taking it anyway. i suppose they thought they'd find something, but just turned out to be school books and papers.

 

Fire up the webcam and take a pic of the crook and email THAT to yourself

 

Didn't know about that. How does the Bios one work?

I didn't think of that ....

 

A friend of mine and 4 other consultants had their laptops stolen from two rental cars whilst eating out for dinner.

No forced entry into the cars.

Turns out there was sensitive data on my friends notebook, and I may add it was a company notebook, this company had not taken the steps to secure this notebook, turns out they blamed him for negligence and he got fired recently. This was a pretty large company btw, and he had a fairly high profile job ...

I advised him to sue ...

But its a modern day horror story none the less.

 

I always take mine with me inside, if I go inside places... I dont trust anyone. People are scum.

 

damn, are you serious? the exact same thing happened to me about a month ago. i had my bag stolen out of a friends car...total monetaty damage is in excess of $6000...

2 wks old vaio sz-680 loaded to the max (well, bought the 3gb of ram myself) with over $1k of licensed software i installed myself(office 2003 pro, photoshop lightroom, photoshop cs3, illustrator cs2) $2500'ish
my favorite riding backpack (was riding my motorcycle that day, friend picked me up for lunch from work)...cheap, but i loved that bag
hermes credit card holder $1000
nokia n95 $800 when i bought it
ipod video 30gb $250 or so i think when i bought it
shure se530 headset $500
cannon sd800is $300
my driver's license, all my credit cards, all my atm cards, but most sadly, my old college ID which i use about 4 times a week to get student priced movie ticket...i had long surfer hair back then and loved the photo on that ID...so sad

anyways, like everyone says, home owner's insurance, renter's insurance, and/or business owner's insurance will help cover the loss. if doesn't even have to be stolen out of your home/apt/business. also, if you purchased your stuff with a good credit card (american express platinum and up (including corporate), citi worldpass premier and up, etc). you can use their buyer protection programs. both the amex and citi cards will pay up to a certain dollar amount per claim for goods stolen/damaged/lost within 90days if you bought the item with the card. i know amex will make a claim in your behalf with you corresponding insurance for any dollar amount exceeding their limit

good luck. i've replaced everything a splurged a little more on the backpack, credit card holder, and cell phone...kinda to make myself feel better for the loss i guess.

 

appreciate the support and sorry for your similar loss

on the positive -- i was able to return the sony onsite insurance (within 60 days) for $258

luckily i had my driver's license on my in my pocket -- it was the only thing i took out of my bag -- the rest of my wallet, my keys, and my student id were in the bag.

i too went on a bit of a shopping spree over the weekend -- got some winter clothes, new wallet, new bag (though I still prefer my old one); and took one of the laptops lying around my parents house -- a thinkpad t42 -- not great, but will do for work/school -- I'll prolly be waiting for the next sz iteration before buying again.

unfortunately the laptop was entirely on a sony gift card purchase

 

that sucks, but if it wasnt in plain view and it was in a bag under the seat maybe it was someone that knows you?