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Community Corner

Crime in Altadena? Why Yes, It Can Happen to You

An ode to my stolen laptop

You would think I’d know better, but you’d be wrong.

You would think I’d know better because I read about shattered car windows and stolen laptops every week, right here on Altadena Patch. In fact, I posted some of those reports to this very site just last month.

A few days ago, I left a laptop in the backseat of my car and in the morning there was no back window and no laptop. Which was only briefly shocking. In retrospect, it was an entirely logical outcome.

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The thieves knew precisely what they wanted – the evidence weighs against impulse shopping and recreational vandalism.  Only one window was shattered, the window closest to the laptop, leaving the rest of the car intact.  Call it Stockholm syndrome, but I’m actually grateful for that.

They didn't take the other items in the car – a really nice scarf, a sweater, and a whole case of decent wine. They (or he or she, I don’t know if more than one is involved) didn’t rifle through the glove box or the console or the hatchback area. Nope, they knew what they wanted, and I was just the one to give it to them.

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I like to picture their faces, though, when they realized what it was they actually got: Dude, it’s a Dell. A really old Dell. A really old, huge, ugly Dell.

So old, I called her Nellie-Belle.  So huge, when I took her to the library, people wondered what I was doing with a microwave oven.  And so ugly the design on her cover looked just like a paper towel from the Bounty or Brawny country kitchen collection.

But even though Nellie was no glamour girl, no member of the high-kicking Apple chorus line, she had a solid work ethic -- never late, never sick, never pestering me for an upgrade.  And that’s all I wanted.

Nellie had one other advantage, big advantage. I could leave her unattended in a library or coffee shop and she’d still be there when I got back. Nellie was no flirt, and no one ever tried to pick her up.  

So, what can I say, I got complacent. 

I got a little lazy, left my laptop alone in the car, and paid the price. And not just in dollars. After you’ve been robbed, there’s a whole list of chores.  File a report with the Sheriff’s Department, get the window fixed, change all  the passwords at home, notify the insurance company – oh, let me pause at that one. Whatever small catastrophe has ever crossed my path, somehow my insurance company has been able to find something in fine print, absolving them of any financial responsibility.  I won’t mention them by name except to say, maybe their hands are good, but they seem to use them as little as possible.

In any case, something worthwhile has come out of all this. I lost a laptop, but you gained a cautionary tale.

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