January 12, 2011

  • Dumb, Dumb, Dumb (with update)

    I originally posted this protected but now since it’s over, I want to tell you all the conclusion!

    I’m only protecting this post because it doesn’t have a conclusion yet. I’ve been playing phone tag with La Bonne Fille (LBF), one of my dearest friends. I was able to speak to her for a few minutes last night right as we were on our way to grab Indian food (I was feeling congested and chicken vindaloo seemed like a good cure) and she told me this gem of a story. I know I’ve written a lot about her but as a refresher, she lives in a pretty small town in Alaska.

    Up there a lot of people just leave their cars running (and therefore their keys in the car and car doors unlocked if they don’t have auto-start) when they run into places because it’s so bloody cold. Otherwise, it can be very difficult to get the car restarted. So LBF goes into the nail salon and does the typical Alaska thing with her car. When she comes back out, she realizes that her backpack with her laptop has been stolen and is pretty freaked out. She and her husband filed a report with the cops right away. The cops also suggested looking on Craigslist and Ebay as well as some of the pawn shops in town. The cops and the pawn shop people also made a point to tell LBF that usually what happens is that the thief will usually wait a little while before selling the stolen item so they should be sure to check in the coming weeks and months.

    LBF decided to look at Craigslist in the meantime just to see if there was even a Craigslist for their area in Alaska. There is and there happened to be a listing from the day after the computer was stolen for a must-sell MacBook Pro laptop. Now, like I said, LBF is in a small town so the coincidence of her computer getting stolen and the same kind of computer appearing on Craigslist around the same time are sort of eerie.

    LBF was able to get the serial number from Apple. LBF’s husband and his friend (both intimidating looking guys) put in a request to buy the computer from the seller. They’re going to meet with the buyer and compare the serial number.

    If the computer turns out to be stolen, the thief wins the World’s Dumbest award… I’ll let you all know what happens.

    Update:

    So LBF’s husband and friend went to meet up with the seller and unfortunately the serial numbers didn’t match up meaning that it wasn’t her computer. If it had been her computer, finding it so quickly on Craigslist would have been really amazing, no? I told her to keep looking and checking but she does need a computer right now (she’s working on her Masters) so she’s getting another one. Still, it would be nice to find her old one!