The PutPlace Blog

A burglar broke into Alex Botsios’ apartment and threatened him with a baseball bat. Botsios willingly gave up his wallet and guitars, but balked when it came to his laptop:

Then the robber made the mistake that ultimately landed him in the hospital — he went for the laptop. According to Botsios, he said “Dude, no — please, no! I have all my case notes…that’s four months of work!” Saucedo, obviously underestimating the fury of an overstressed, overworked first-year, was unsympathetic. That’s when Botsios could take no more.

Wrestling Saucdeo to the floor, Botsios separated the bat from the thief and repeatedly punched him in the face. When it was all over, police had to get Saucedo stitched up before charging him with armed robbery and kidnapping, while Botsios only suffered some scrapes and a bruised knuckle. Most importantly, at least to the student, is that his laptop, which he called “his baby,” escaped unharmed.

Of course, if Mr. Botsios had backed up his laptop somewhere remotely (hint, hint), he might not have worried so much about it getting stolen.

The sad story of Jimmy and Tamala Lapointe was featured on the front page of Vancouver’s tabloid, The Province, today. They had their laptop stolen from their car. The laptop had the only copy of irreplaceable baby photos–”the birthing room, his first time breastfeeding, everything”:

Thieves got into the car and nabbed a backpack. Inside was a white Apple MacBook laptop loaded with all Rykr’s photos. “I kept on thinking, ‘I should get that backed up,’ but we knew we were going to make a photo album,” said Jimmy. “It was dumb that we didn’t have a backup.”

Theirs is a cautionary tale. We’re hoping the thief has a heart, and that they get their baby photos back. Don’t let this happen to you–back up today.