House burglary Merlin - €1,500 for return of laptop

jamesozzie

Our home in the Merlin area of Galway was burglered on Saturday last (St. Patricks day). Among the items that were was a laptop, which is a work related laptop that contained very specific software, which would useless to other people but of great value and importance to me. I am offering a €1,500 reward for its return, no questions asked. This is much more than the value of the laptop, which I stress again is of huge importance to me.

If anybody has any information please contact me directly, or the Galway gardai, who have been very helpful. The other items stolen from our home can be replaced, but if anybody has any idea about the whereabouts of a silver Lenovo Yoga 900 laptop please get in touch.

I know this is probably the best place to post this but I really am desperate

beechwood55

Really really hope you get it back.

myshirt

I wish you every bit of luck but we had something similar in the past and paid nearly a grand a gigabyte to recover on what was a smashed laptop, data is the new gold. I hope you had it backed up. Pure scumbags to do that to you and invade your home.

jamesozzie

beechwood55 wrote: »

Really really hope you get it back.

Thanks, I really hope so too. I would have preferred they take the car and all other contents of the house such is the personal value

biko

Good luck, I know how valuable the data on a business laptop can be.
I hope at least some of the data was backed up offsite so it's not all lost.

TerrorFirmer

Keep an eye on Donedeal and Adverts, and wouldn't hurt to pass information to the likes of CEX or Cash Creators about this specific case.

muckbrien

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Keep an eye on Donedeal and Adverts, and wouldn't hurt to pass information to the likes of CEX or Cash Creators about this specific case.

Good luck op!

Is the likes of cex allowed to take a laptop without a receipt,surely that's only encouraging theft?

theteal

muckbrien wrote: »

Good luck op!

Is the likes of cex allowed to take a laptop without a receipt,surely that's only encouraging theft?

Who would have a receipt for a few year old laptop? CEX would only take a working laptop. Being a work laptop, I imagine it's got bitlocker etc. The only way to get any life out of it would be to swap the disk and do a clean rebuild of the OS. That's a lot of effort for a thief - if they even know how to do it.

muckbrien

theteal wrote: »

Who would have a receipt for a few year old laptop? CEX would only take a working laptop. Being a work laptop, I imagine it's got bitlocker etc. The only way to get any life out of it would be to swap the disk and do a clean rebuild of the OS. That's a lot of effort for a thief - if they even know how to do it.

Me anyway, I file receipts for expensive items.

biko

Contact Lenovo support and see what they can do
http://support.lenovo.com/en/

jamesozzie

biko wrote: »

Contact Lenovo support and see what they can do
http://support.lenovo.com/en/

I'll do that now. Thanks, I have the order from when I purchased directly anyway

joeKel73

theteal wrote: »

Who would have a receipt for a few year old laptop?

Most people that bought their laptop online would be able to dig out the email receipt.

jamesozzie

J o e wrote: »

Most people that bought their laptop online would be able to dig out the email receipt.

Yes, I have the receipt, it was purchased online.

dok_golf

If you link your twitter and facebook, I'll certainly spread the news. Good luck with it.

jamesozzie

dok_golf wrote: »

If you link your twitter and facebook, I'll certainly spread the news. Good luck with it.

Thanks so much, I have it posted in a few places, including the "This is Galway" facebook page.

Link here

TerrorFirmer

muckbrien wrote: »

Good luck op!

Is the likes of cex allowed to take a laptop without a receipt,surely that's only encouraging theft?

They do require you have an account opened with photo ID to trade anything in.

That said, stolen stuff does inevitably pass through there.

longgonesilver

Can you get this publisied throughout the university, twitter or whatever internal mail they use, especially the IT department.

Does this laptop have an associated gmail account.?

jamesozzie

longgonesilver wrote: »

Can you get this publisied throughout the university, twitter or whatever internal mail they use, especially the IT department.

Does this laptop have an associated gmail account.?

Great idea with the Uni's, I will do that tomorrow. And yes, it has a gmail account, I have 2 factor verification on which is a plus at least.

Bobeagleburger

Share to the Galway Advertiser and Connaught Tribune pages on Facebook. You may need to request from them to do so.

Between them they have over 150,000 followers, it'll get shared galore from there.

Good luck.

bobbyss

jamesozzie wrote: »

Our home in the Merlin area of Galway was burglered on Saturday last (St. Patricks day). Among the items that were was a laptop, which is a work related laptop that contained very specific software, which would useless to other people but of great value and importance to me. I am offering a €1,500 reward for its return, no questions asked. This is much more than the value of the laptop, which I stress again is of huge importance to me.

If anybody has any information please contact me directly, or the Galway gardai, who have been very helpful. The other items stolen from our home can be replaced, but if anybody has any idea about the whereabouts of a silver Lenovo Yoga 900 laptop please get in touch.

I know this is probably the best place to post this but I really am desperate

I wish you well in its recovery. What were the circumstances of the burglary? What time of day was it? How did they gain entry? It must have been upsetting to you.

jamesozzie

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Share to the Galway Advertiser and Connaught Tribune pages on Facebook. You may need to request from them to do so.

Between them they have over 150,000 followers, it'll get shared galore from there.

Good luck.

Thanks, I will do that now.

biko

I hope this thread has at least triggered one or two people to back up their data onto another device.

jamesozzie

bobbyss wrote: »

I wish you well in its recovery. What were the circumstances of the burglary? What time of day was it? How did they gain entry? It must have been upsetting to you.

It was St. Paddy's day, more than likely the 30 minutes or so I popped out to drive a friend into town. They got in through the sliding sash door at the back. We rent a house here, and apparently it was burgled before, as were a couple of neighbours. And yes, it's beyond upsetting with the stuff I had on that laptop, not all backed up - things that are useless to others, I work in IT.

jamesozzie

biko wrote: »

I hope this thread has at least triggered one or two people to back up their data onto another device.

True, I hope so. I do use Google drive but didn't backup in a few months, stupid mistake.

bobbyss

biko wrote: »

I hope this thread has at least triggered one or two people to back up their data onto another device.

And not just backing up data. I always leave my car keys and wallet on the back kitchen windowsill. I leave laptop open and visible and easily seen from outside.

How dumb is that?

Many burglaries happen in the middle of the day. Have heard many happen on days when there is a funeral and the house is empty. Some robbers no doubt read RIP.ie and get the relevant details.

I often wonder what I would do if I came across a robber in the house.

Bobeagleburger

bobbyss wrote: »

And not just backing up data. I always leave my car keys and wallet on the back kitchen windowsill. I leave laptop open and visible and easily seen from outside.

How dumb is that?

Many burglaries happen in the middle of the day. Have heard many happen on days when there is a funeral and the house is empty. Some robbers no doubt read RIP.ie and get the relevant details.

I often wonder what I would do if I came across a robber in the house.

Pretty common.

I've been to a few funerals recently where someone stays in the home when the funeral is on, a neighbour usually. Sad but true.

westgolf

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Pretty common.

I've been to a few funerals recently where someone stays in the home when the funeral is on, a neighbour usually. Sad but true.

Tis some reflection on how things are. Any scrote caught breaking in to a funeral house in these circumstances deserves every thing he gets.

paconnors

just seen this on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/519886308117074/permalink/1456535531118809/?sale_post_id=1456535531118809

magentis

paconnors wrote: »

just seen this on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/519886308117074/permalink/1456535531118809/?sale_post_id=1456535531118809

Getting page not found for that link.

georgewickstaff

I hope you get back...bios password and backup your laptops people.

Best wishes to you

jamesozzie

paconnors wrote: »

just seen this on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/519886308117074/permalink/1456535531118809/?sale_post_id=1456535531118809

Thats a mate of mine, giving me a hand to find it. Thanks for the heads up though, real decent of you