Yesterday my husband was driving home from work from another city. He stopped at a Home Depot to pick up some stain for a job he is working on. He is a speciality paint finisher. When he came out of the store he found his car broken into and his business/personal computer stolen. Now you have to understand that he has a very old Jeep Cherokee that looks like a moving trash can. It is full of painting stuff and moldings and junk. He doesn't have any room for a passenger because it is full of stuff. Well, he had his computer on the front seat with a pair of blue jeans on top of it. Some jerk shattered the passenger window and stole the computer and the jeans. All of his customers job invoices and formulas are on this computer plus all of his customers pictures of his jobs. He even had our tax information on it from last year. I was extremely upset about the tax info being on his computer. Anyway, it was a 3 year old computer and it was a Mac Pro. We are hoping that the battery will run out fast and they won't get much info off of it. They were so stupid that they did not take the charger that was under the computer.

Filed a police report and was told that we should not expect to get it back. Store is suppose to have a surveillance camera, but do not know if it was working or if it caught anything.

Last night my son had to reroute and change his email passwords. We had to contact his business bank to put a freeze on any online activity. I had to sign us up with Lifelock to get some type of protection fast.

The car insurance has $100 deductible for the window and we don't know how much our homeowner deductible is for the computer.

All this for someone to get their kicks and make a fast buck at someone else's expense.

I wanted to send an email to the person who stole it and offer a reward for the return of computer intact, but my son said it was a bad idea. What do ya'll think?

Oh, I forgot to mention that my husband's mother died two weeks ago and we are dealing with all the mess from her death. Do you believe in bad luck coming in three's. I hope that whatever else bad that is coming our way is not as devastating as the last two.

That completely sucks I'm so sorry for the theft and especially for the passing of your MIL.

My home was broken into 2 yrs ago while we were at work........being a victim of a robbery is the most horrific thing I've ever experienced......I felt completely violated.

They stole my DD's laptop which was just out on her bed, and all of my jewelry from my bureau drawer. Needless to say we never saw any of the stuff again.

I hope your luck turns around soon............try to keep your chin up

I know I am mad right now while my husband is in a depression today, but I am deeply grateful that my husband was not robbed at gunpoint and injured. At least he was away from the crime scene. I try to look for a silver lining if at all possible so that is my blessing, no injury to my husband or anyone else.

That's what you need to do, look at the silver lining - your husband wasn't injured. I hope you are safe from anymore theft (as a result of personal info on your computer)...that is the most worrisome part - identity theft.

So sorry this happened.

I am sorry this is all coming down on you all at once. But yeah, he wasn't there and it wasn't a carjacking.

My neighbor's computer was stolen and the thief actually called her to get her password! They told her they were the police and had found the computer but needed her password to confirm it was hers. She managed to convince them to give her their phone number and she'd call them back. She called the police, who called the number. Fortunately, she had it set up so a password was needed to even get to the desktop, so none of her stuff was accessible.

If my laptop was stolen, I'd be up that ever famous Sh*t Creek.

You know, sometimes I wonder just how smart I am! When I set up my new laptop and bypassed the whole password thing I was thinking...why on earth would I want another password to remember - only my family members use my computer. Guess I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am or I would of thought of that!!!

I hope tomorrow will bring better things for you dldbrou!

Thank you for your kind thoughts. Today is a new day and I feel like it can only get better from here. Husband is out this morning trying to get his window fixed so he can go back to work out of town. It is suppose to rain and he needs to keep his supplies dry. The fun part is yet to happen, trying to figure out stuff for his taxes on his business. All of his information was on his computer. He did not listen to me and back up his work. You know how women aren't suppose to know stuff about computers. He won't use my computer because I have so many passwords for anyone to navigate through. Not only do you have to open it with a password, you can not get any info without an extra password once you open it. Then most any program or bank info needs another password. I always say, you can not have too much insurance or passwords. LOL This time I was right and he is having a hard time without his info since he did not back it up. Lesson learned the hard way.

That's horrible! Glad your husband is ok though. I would STRONGLY recommend is that your husband listen to you and start backing up his computer. He can go out and buy one or even two USB hard drives. Backup everything of importance to those drives and keep one somewhere that the laptop is not (relatives house, safe deposit box, etc). Hopefully this never happens again, but that would give your hubby a backup of all of his invoices, taxes and all the other good stuff if his laptop is stolen OR destroyed. Good luck getting everything straightened out.

Im sorry this happened to your husband and i hope you guys can get all the info figured out. Our laptop only runs for like 2.5 hrs before the battery dies, so maybe by now the battery is dead and thief is screwed. On a side note, all the passwords we have just to turn our laptop on drives me nuts, but now it makes since. Good Luck and i hope Home depot surveillance was working.

That is horrible. My car was broken into a couple of times. Once, it was in the parking lot of Lord and Taylor. My car was packed with clothes (most w/ tags still on) for my brother's wedding, and they stole all the clothes! The second time, the stole my dry cleaning out of the back seat, and drew penises and wrote F@#! Honda all over it with a Sharpie. I definitely felt violated.

I would bet you anything that the person that stole the computer ran immediately to a pawn shop and sold it for drug money, never even turned it on.

((((hugs))))

I am so sorry this happened, but atleast DH was not harmed. Something similar happened to a vistor visiting my godmother last month. His new custome made $2000 laptop with all his business info-whoosh! And to think it is outside her house which I visit atleast 3 times a month!!! I am careful to put the laptop in the trunk when we have to leave it in the car...I would feel totally violated if someone broke into my laptop. oh well...God bless!

Update: Police report is still not ready and husband can not get another computer until report is finished. Home Insurance will pay replacement value after $800 deductible.

Called the Apple company to give them the serial number in case they would try to get it worked on. Our store said that any company that works on computer is suppose to check the serial numbers before any work is done. It is still under warranty until the end of this month.

Got window fixed just in time, we have had rain on and off for two days.

Suppose to call pawn shops next week to see if it turned up there.

This is tough to go through. My DH had a Jeep, too. We were newlyweds and broke broke broke, but his windows leaked and we saved for MONTHS to get him some new ones. Stupid thief slashed the windows with a knife the very next day, stole the radio and my purse. (It was a neighbor, but couldn't prove it). Also ironic, the door was unlocked, no reason to cut the windows!
I'm sorry he is going through this. It is very violating. Just remember that you will get through this, and there will be brighter days ahead, not matter how dark everything seems right now.

This just happened to us a few weeks ago. Laptop and digital camera. I have a flashdrive for our home computer and I have backups of a lot of things on it, including customer info (Cake Boss!). I do not keep it near the computer either. When your hubby gets up and running again, have him backup his customer info and pics onto something else, either a flashdrive or CD.

Last night I was checking into a new security feature for computers, iphones, ipod touch. It's called Gadgettrak. Once you join and download the software, it will take pictures of the thief once they open up the device. It takes pictures every thirty minutes and will put it on a site that you can view it. I think it also gives the location that the device is currently located when the picture was taken. I will probably get this for my computer now and also whenever he gets his new one.

How does it take pictures?

Oh so sorry. I know how it feels to be violated. I was talking ot my neighbor one day and she came over to look at our van. She was saying that she use to love having a van and that we should put tv's in for the kids. I was like "we have tv's right there and turned to show her and they were gone. I was in shock because I didnt realize it and the person took my case of cd's as well. I was so mad because now my kids dont have tv in the car. People are jerks sometimes. I wish sometimes that we lived in t a place that would cut thieves arms off. That would teach them!

Michelle, The computer has the capability of taking pictures. Most of the newer models can do this. Both my husbands and my computer can take pictures. I don't know what model you have, but mine has a square hole in the middle top screen. That is where the camera is.