Hi,

We've unfortunately had our laptop stolen from our house. Obviously opportunistic because we're having work done and the doors were left open much of the day to let workers in and out. I brought the computer out to do some work and then stupidly left it lying on the coffee table when I nt out (and didn't lock door behind me as worker was inside). Person obviously darted in at some point, grabbed it and got back out as nothing else was touched including the power cable. The laptop is a bit rubbish tbh, but everything on it is very valuable to us.

So just warning everyone to be very careful while kicking myself for being so complacent. Does anyone have any thoughts on local pawn shops etc where someone would try to sell a used/stolen laptop? I'm hoping they were just looking for a quick buck and I'd happily pay to have it back. It's a Dell Inspiron 5010.

And I don't think it's anyone who was working on the house - their project is longer and I doubt they'd jeapordise it for something so small (but which would be difficult to hide).

Thanks!

Sorry to hear that.

You could try Cash Converters in Lewisham though, TBH, it is much more likely that this was traded down the pub for a quick fix.

The other lesson to learn from this is to back up data that is important to you. Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear that right now.

I just had a quick look on Gumtree for you but could not see anything, but you could look there as well over the next day or so.

Try cash converters in Penge too...Hope you get it back. Also, I'm wondering if it's related to the previous thread about the shady character bumping into cars in Garthorne rd/Ackroyd.

This post was last modified: 02-08-2013 12:52 PM by PollyEster63.

Hi PollyEster63, don't think so, the chap in Garthorne/Ackroyd seemed pretty out of it, plus it was at 00:30am last night.

Thanks all - greatly appreciated. Hindsight is 20/20, but planning taking every single precaution in the book in the future and will now do so with phone etc. as well. It's SO annoying. May go check out the cash converters and also hope the police come around today (for what it's worth).

Sorry I can't help with your old laptop, but you may consider some tracking software next time.

Once you are not in possession of your mobile device(these things work for other devices too), you log onto the site and wait for you device to connect to internet. You can then get various levels of info in depending on the software. You can then recover your laptop with help of police. I guess the flaw is that it has to connect to the internet, but that is highly likely nowadays.

Your story has actually prompted me to to finally install this on my laptop.