

Saddest Day: Macbook Pro Stolen While in San Francisco - yinghang

Sunday was the saddest day of my life. I&#x27;m a college student in Boston who went to the Bay Area during Thanksgiving to check it out. Everything was amazing until I went to Union Square and my rental car was broken into and the thief stole my backpack that contains my new 16GB Macbook Pro, iPad 2, various passports and etc. It&#x27;s really sad because I lost around $3k worth of stuff with no hopes of getting it back.<p>My advice to future tourists: Never leave valuables in the car or trunk.
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velocitypsycho
It's actually good to hear that the saddest day of your life involves
something gettings stolen. There will be much worse days. I guess what I'm
trying to say is that it's just stuff. It's sad, but don't let it get to you
too much.

~~~
yinghang
I guess. The stolen stuff are some of my essential daily tools. I need my
laptop for everyday usage and my passport is important for me to get home
during winter break, which is in 2 weeks.

~~~
georgebashi
Depending on your home country, you should be able to get a temporary passport
issued by your embassy here, which would allow you to travel home.

~~~
UweSchmidt
And while you're roughing it with a temporary passport and a cheap windows
laptop, count your blessings:

I'd bet >10% of the readers here have had any of the following: Cancer or
similar shitty disease or disability in self or family, lost >50.000$ in
natural disaster, accident or financial turmoil and/or are in a permanent
state of stress due to job, relationships, legal battles or similar.

Perspective!

~~~
mahyarm
Add a divorce to that, and you get over %50 probably! Divorces are far more
financially and emotionally ruinous than this.

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codegeek
Sorry to hear this but you need to do a few things immediately if you haven't
already:

1) Report your passport stolen to your nearest embassy. This is critical. Make
sure this is done first

2) Report the theft to the local police and describe everything in detail as
much as you can. Do it soon so that it is fresh in your mind

3) Keep an eye on sites like craigslist for sale of macbooks in the area. Yes
this is pretty much a long shot but you never know. There are plenty of stupid
thieves in this world and the thief might try and sell it right away.

4) Did you have any kind of tracker app on your ipad etc ? I think Apple has
something right ? If yes, try and use it to locate your belongings. UPDATE: as
ericcholis mentioned, you should always have an account with
[https://www.icloud.com](https://www.icloud.com) and use "Find My iPhone" to
track your MacBook and iPad

And yes, for all of us, PLEASE never leave anything in your car that can be
seen easily. Even if you think the area is safe or who will bother stealing a
backpack, think again. I always make it a point to either put things in the
trunk of the car or glovebox if you must leave it in your car.

~~~
ericcholis
You _should_ be able to log into iCloud.com and manage/find your devices
there.

~~~
yinghang
Being a dummy, I put off setting up iCloud because I was too busy with school
work, thinking I would be able to set it up during break. Not anymore.

~~~
jbob2000
Jesus christ man, too busy to login to a fucking website and click a few
buttons? We're talking like 5 minutes here. Could have saved you $3,000...

~~~
wpietri
Downvoting because this comment, restating the obvious, adds nothing but
kicking somebody when they're down.

~~~
jbob2000
No way, this is such a common sentiment among my friends and coworkers that it
needed to be said. This guy was straight up lazy and he got caught with his
pants down.

~~~
wpietri
Words don't need to be said; words don't have needs. People sometimes could
_benefit_ from hearing words. But if you're going to be a jerk about it, then
people generally aren't going to listen. Ergo, no benefit.

In this case, though, I don't think stating the obvious was anything that the
original poster needed to hear. You were responding to something where he
already said that he was "a dummy" and will do it differently next time.

And I think your accusation of laziness is... unevidenced. He's a college
sophomore at a selective school, he's studying half-way around the world from
home, he has a number of neat projects on his blog, and decided to make a
cross-country trip over Thanksgiving break. And in a follow-up to a theft, he
took the time to post something to help other US visitors avoid thefts in the
future. That doesn't look lazy to me.

~~~
dorfuss
There are two kinds of feedback. The one that makes people stronger, and the
one that makes people weaker.

I believe it's so much more worthwhile to be supportive. When you have any
kind of an adventage over others such as when you know something better, have
move experience, have more money etc., you have these two options: either use
your adventages to help, or to bring down.

To ridicule is not the best method of educating others either. And a person
who feels strong doesn't have to show any sign of superiority, because with
true strength comes security.

I wish the author of the original question will not find it too difficult to
get back on track after loosing the bag. Good luck to you.

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wpietri
Yeah, I have made that mistake in SF, although thankfully at a much smaller
cost.

I had set the change from a parking garage on the passenger seat. At my next
stop, Japantown, I parked at a meter and forgot about the few bucks sitting in
plain view. I came back 20 minutes later to find the window smashed. Hundreds
of dollars in repair costs and hours of my and other people's time. All for $2
or $3 in somebody's pocket. It gave me perspective on how desperate some
people are.

Anyhow, I'm sorry that you experienced this in my city. The advice you give
applies pretty much any where in the US (and in a number of other countries
I've been in). If something is visible and looks valuable, 5 mm of glass is
not much of a barrier.

Edited to add: Feel free to contact me (details in my profile) if you need a
hand from a local with anything. E.g., I'm glad to go with you to file the
police report.

~~~
yinghang
Thanks a lot for the offer! Really appreciate it. But, I've already filed a
report and I just got back to Boston.

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timr
Sorry to hear about your loss! Hopefully you'll be a public service
announcement for others about the dangers of leaving anything -- _anything_
\-- visible in a car in San Francisco. If there's even the slightest doubt
that the item has value, your car window will be smashed and the items stolen.

If it makes you feel any better, you're in good company: nearly everyone I
know has been the victim of smash-and-grabs. At my last company, two of our
employees had their laptops stolen from a parked car. I've even had windows
bashed because someone wanted to open the glove compartment to see if there
was anything inside!

Most recently, we discovered some crackhead _cutting through our front gate_
because he wanted access to some bikes that were visible. He would have had to
cut through the gate, then another security door to get them, but that was no
deterrent. It's one of the "charming" aspects of city life that makes you want
to move to the suburbs.

As codegeek says, you should report your passport immediately. Your laptop has
probably already been fenced for drug money, but you could _try_ to find it on
craigslist, or down at the various stolen-property yardsales at 6th/7th and
Market. That's a long shot, though.

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ufmace
Sorry to hear about your loss. Hope your data was backed up somewhere you can
get it, and that you had Apple's Find My device, or whatever they call it, set
up.

Same advice in a better form: Never leave anything that looks like it might
contain valuables in a visible place in a car. Trunk is usually fine, since
nobody can tell what's in there, and thieves usually won't break into random
cars in the hope that there might be something valuable in the trunk. On the
other hand, a bag with nothing valuable in it on the seats is not fine, since
the car may get broken into anyways, on the assumption that there's something
worth stealing in there.

I've lived in an urban area for a while, and have seen this happen in several
different ways...

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detry
Living in Finland, I haven't always been thrilled about our extensive social
welfare and the consequent high tax rates. This story reminds me that even
though I don't benefit directly from social welfare, there are latent benefits
on the societal level. Namely the ubiquitous sense of security, because the
poor rarely have to resort to theft as the government gives them money to get
by.

I don't really have to watch out for thieves. Of course they exist and you can
never be too careful with these things. But occasionally having left valuables
in view inside my car, or a bag at a cafe table while I visit the restroom,
I've never had anything stolen. I'm not afraid to walk in the city at night.

A friend of mine was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight in SF, which came to
me as a big surprise. I couldn't imagine that could even happen. Obviously I
need to travel more to broaden my worldview...

~~~
benjohnson
I think you may be looking at one factor too exclusively - You're also
comparing a rather homognious culture with the mixing pot of America.

While there's downsides as seen here ( where personal property is not held
sacrosanct by all cultures ) there are upsides as well that may outweigh the
costs. For example: Americans get exposed to many unique cultures in the
course of their daily lives. One could argue that this is beneficial.

~~~
parfe
Which cultures don't respect personal property?

~~~
benjohnson
Speaking from personal experience - the white-trash/tweaker culture, and the
intergenerational Section 8 culture.

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thinker
I've been paranoid living in SF with a car the last year and sucks to hear
this happened to you. Just some advice for the future and to others that park
around SF: I didn't realize until recently that my car has a "valet" button
and what it actually does. Basically, its a button in the glove compartment
and when you turn it on, the trunk can't be opened. So what you do is turn it
on, and then lock your glove compartment with your key. Also make sure if you
have back seats that open that they are locked as well. This way even if
someone breaks into your car, they won't be able to access your trunk.

~~~
mahyarm
What model of car do you have?

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philmcc
Having suffered this a year or so ago I can feel your pain.

Question:

Why doesn't Apple log stolen serial numbers so that the second they show up
(connect to iCloud, brought in for repair, or whatever), alarms, dogs, sharks
with lasers, you know, the usual.

I feel like computers shouldn't be any more thieve-able than cell phones.

~~~
markdown
> I feel like computers shouldn't be any more thieve-able than cell phones.

Wait, what?

What country do you live in where phones aren't worth stealing?

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yinghang
Entire story of what happened:

I paid $10 for a parking space somewhere near Union Square thinking my car
would be safe from towing and what not. I left my backpack in the trunk
because it was too heavy (big mistake). Went back 3 hours later and the rear
window was smashed and they got to the trunk from the reclining passenger
seat. Filed a police report and they told me chances of me getting my stuff
back is slim. Went to Apple Store and tried to get a discount for the second
purchase but they only offered me the usual student discount. Called my credit
card company but apparently I don't have any coverage for my purchase.

~~~
zocoi
Sorry to hear this. I think it's very rare to have things stolen from the
trunk, were you followed or watched when you first parked the car?

Most credit card companies have car rental insurance to cover the damage to
the car.

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berelig
>My advice to future tourists: Never leave valuables in the car or trunk.

That's general advice for anyone who's ever been in a car.

Did you have travel insurance? I've never had to use it but this seems like
something that would be covered.

~~~
yinghang
Unfortunately I only have health insurance but not travel. I could've asked
for an extra insurance for my rental car but being a poor student, I wanted to
save money.

~~~
kennywinker
If you bought the macbook on a credit card, that will occasionally include
insurance for theft, loss or damage. I knocked my new iPad off my desk a week
after buying it and visa paid for a replacement with very little hassle.

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aurora72
In my country (turkey) such thieves are quite common. In my whole life I 've
had things stolen from my car for 3 times. The last one happened, even though
there was nothing to steal from the car no backpack, anything. The thief stole
the CD Deck! And yet another theft we had on our basement last year. The thief
took my (about $60 worth) socket wrench set. I observe there's a certain
pattern on thiefs actions and deeds: They seem to know if there's something
worthy in any area and when they find one they steal without anyone seeing.

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samirmenon
Login to [https://www.icloud.com/](https://www.icloud.com/) and use "Find My
iPhone" to track your MacBook and iPad. If the thieves are stupid enough,
they'll turn the devices on at some point, giving you a good idea of where
they are.

Do this as soon as possible, and check back constantly. Good luck!

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chrisbennet
20+ years ago I had a thief break into my car in front of my apartment. When I
called to report it, I (jokingly) asked the lady taking down the details if
there was a fine or anything for shooting thieves. She got all exited about
that. Here in New Hampshire gun ownership is pretty common and crime (perhaps
coincidently?) is fairly rare.

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fsflyer
See Apple's Support Pages for Lost/Stolen devices:
[http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT2526](http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT2526)

Do you have renter's insurance in Boston? If so, check your policy, it may
cover theft.

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sjjdjdjdjbddbb
You prob park on the street. Next time pay and park inside a garage and hide
your stuff in different locations! Theives know there are people around so
they will grab whatever they see first!

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jason_slack
I dont have any spare laptops, but I could buy you a chromebook off CL or
Amazon if that is helpful. I know its not much....

~~~
yinghang
Thanks a lot but I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable accepting as expensive as
a laptop from someone I don't know.

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YuriNiyazov
Was your stuff in the trunk or just in the back seat?

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yinghang
Trunk.

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brotoss
Do you have home or renters insurance?

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yinghang
I have neither.

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farabove
Travel insurance?

