Please Keep Your Eyes Peeled for this Laptop Stolen in Shaw

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by Prince Of Petworth February 28, 2016 at 2:37 pm 13 Comments

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Ed. Note: No judgement, no lecturing, no preaching – just keep an eye out please. Thanks.

“Dear PoPville,

My car was broken into and all my belongings stolen, in Shaw [10th and N. NW]. Crucial thing is my laptop, which has my dissertation and Ph.D. stuff on it and which I am absolutely dying without, as well as my school stuff. I am offering a reward to anyone who gives it back. No questions asked. Cash. [email protected]”

neighbor

I’m really sorry that you got your stuff stollen. That said, biomedical research using animal models have kept you and your family members alive and healthy. There’s always room for improved treatment of lab animals, but please know that anyone you know who has lived through cancer, stroke, heart attack, blood transfusion, organ transplant, not died of a vaccine prevented childhood illness, or ever used pretty much any medication has research animals to thank for their well-being. Your pets have also benefited from this animal research if they’ve ever needed medicine.
- Marty
  
  Additionally, nonhuman primates are only used in very specific circumstances.
- Ally
  
  Probably not the most kind or appropriate time for this discussion when the person is just trying to get his/her laptop back.
- MMMkay
  
  This really isn’t a good time for this. Not just because this person was just robbed, but also because internet comments from a random person hardly ever convince someone to change a strongly-held belief. It wasn’t necessary, and you’re only going to start an argument and/or further upset someone who is already upset.
GBinCH

I hate to say it, but who ever stole this will probably try to sell it. To do that, they’ll be taking off the stickers, and then reimaging the hard-drive (easier than hacking a password). I really hope your dissertation is backed up somewhere.
Rich

Something like this happened to an old friend with his thesis. He had to reconstruct the whole thing. This is why people store theses in the freezer or refuse to let flight attendants anywhere near their hard copies of anything. I worked in a supposedly secure building and had a laptop stolen. It happens under many circumstances. Hope the victim had things backed-up somewhere.
I can help!

OP – wanna give us any more identifying information about the laptop itself, in case it shows up on Craigslist or similar with the stickers taken off? All it looks like right now is black dell laptop
- Toni
  
  It’s a Dell E6420. Thank you for asking–I am already on Craigslist looking for it hourly.
ECfromDC

Oh man I hope someone returns it :/.
Also huge lesson why you need to back up everything esp stuff like a PHD dissertation.
- ECfromDC
  
  Or hell the a-hole can at least email it to him (from a burner email or something).
- sympathetic anon
  
  When I was writing mine, I backed it up in the following manner:
  1. Time Machine
  2. USB drive
  3. Every completed chapter draft was sent to my Gmail account
  4. Every completed chapter draft was printed out and stuck on a shelf (intermediate drafts were also printed for hard-copy editing).
  
  So five copies of every piece of work I produced. Even then, I was quite rightly paranoid about losing it. I cannot imagine what this person must be going through. Ugh.
JohnWashDC

There are only two types of hard drives: Those that have failed and those that will fail. Those that don’t backup, are called idiots. Surely a PhD candidate knows this. Add that to the fact that anything visible in a car will be stolen. This is just so “duh.”
- anon
  
  You must have missed the Ed. Note: No judgement, no lecturing, no preaching – just keep an eye out please.
  
  Duh.

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