My laptop was stolen from the trunk of my car yesterday.
Today, I received this email:
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So as much as i want to rationalize my actions, I understand buying stolen property is still stealing. I am the one who unfortunately bought your laptop from someone who likely stole it. I will eventually pay for my bad karma.
Berating me for my actions is useless.
I am deleting everything off of the laptop.
Is there anything that you want.
I am offering to back up to 160 gigs to another hard drive. There is only about 240 gigs worth of information.
I see that you have backed up most everything using time machine. If there is anything smaller like 4, 8, or 10 gigs worth I can do that faster to DVDs or flash drives.
I would have to buy another hard drive to get you the 160 gigs. Which i would if you need the info.
Again apologies for not having the integrity to turn down the offer to buy your laptop
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how did he get my email?
how does he know i backed up to time machine?
what would you do?
While I would have been furious, she was completely okay with it. She calmly told me, "The person who stole it clearly needed it more than me."
Now, this isn't to say that stealing is okay. It's certainly not, and I'd be pissed. However, this person knows what he did was wrong. He really seems to hate what he had to do to get the computer. But he clearly needs it. Maybe he wants it so he can get a job, or wants it so his kid can succeed.
Try appealing to this side of him. Find out why he needs it. I doubt it's so he can watch YouTube videos, based on his email. You can buy a cheap desktop (or even laptop) for a few hundred dollars. Offer to trade a crappy computer for yours. (I doubt he wants you to buy it back; he seems to care more about the computer than money.)
The person almost definitely doesn't need a computer as good as what you had stolen from you, and he's already feeling really guilty about it. And, if he agrees, you can try to find out who actually stole it and tell the police.
Sure, it's unfair you'd have to drop a few hundred dollars- but consider it a donation. (Depending on the circumstances, you might even be able to figure out a way to legally donate it to him through some sort of organization- which would be tax deductible.)
After all, giving him a computer could change his life. Think about how much your life has improved by merely owning a computer; something most people on HN take for granted. You could turn a bad situation into one you're really proud of.