Mark – Page 27 – Traveling Mark

Extended Warranty – Worth It or Not?

I paid more than $300 for an extended warranty on a laptop I got stolen. That made the financial loss associated with the theft so much more severe and made me question the worth of extended warranties. I have done some research and found out that number of laptops that get stolen is significantly higher than number of laptops that need a pricey repair. What this means is that the chances that your laptop gets stolen (or lost – there is also a great deal of laptops people simply forget at a snack shop of an airport and won’t realize that until after takeoff) are far greater than chances of it breaking down. Taking all that into account – are extended warranties worth it or not? Let’s take a closer look at it:

Manufacturer’s Warranty vs Extended Warranty

Laptops, as well as other electronic devices come with manufacturer’s warranty included in price. In most cases, manufacturer’s warranty covers the product for one year and oftentimes applies worldwide. My Samsung Q320 laptop came with one year worldwide warranty and if you buy an equally reputable brand product, you will likely get the same with it. If something was unstable about the product you buy, it would show within a year of use. If on the other hand the product was solid built, chances are it will serve you well for many years without issues. That thing alone makes extended warranty NOT worth it. If there is an issue, it will show during manufacturer’s warranty. If there is no issue, chances are fair the product will work like it should way beyond the coverage of your extended warranty.

Photo: Sticker on My Laptop Signifying That I Came with One Year International Warranty from a Manufacturer

Extended Warranty Claims

If you look up statistics on the internet, you will find out that only about 3% of extended warranty cases end up paying for themselves. 97% of extended warranties purchased are a waste of money. The thing is that many people realize that they are facing a possibility of having the money wasted, but since extended warranty is a peace of mind, they are willing to consider that as an option. Sales people know that very well and have a handful of arguments at the ready to throw at you when you are buying a product. There is no wonder why extended warranty upsales make up for most of sales people’s wages. They are aware of statistics themselves and know that for the most part, vast part of extended warranties they sell will expire without any claims made, which literally means it’s hundreds of dollars straight in their pocket with nothing being given in return.

Cost of Extended Warranties

The cost of an extended warranty is not low at all. It’s typically 1/4 to 1/3 of the price of the item. So if you are buying a $1,000 worth of a laptop, you are looking at good $300 for an extended warranty. That’s a big chunk of money if you look at it. But it gets better – consider this:

If you do spend $300 for 3 years of extended warranty for your laptop, you will have your laptop “protected” until such time that it will be an obsolete piece of junk you won’t be able to use because modern application will not run on it. It’s a simple fact that technology progress is immense. You won’t even reach the end of your extended warranty and you will already start looking around for a new laptop that will contain all latest components cause your old one doesn’t have it. Had you not used the $300 for an extended warranty with purchase of this one, but used this money towards the fund for purchase of a new laptop, you’d be much better off right now. Because even if your laptop quits on you after three years, with an extended warranty you could get it fixed but end up with the same obsolete piece. Whereas if you put this money to work for you in the meantime, gain on its worth and use it towards the purchase of new laptop, you would end up with latest technology piece that will far and wide outdo your old one. Fast aging of electronic devices makes extended warranties not worth it. We’re not in the 1920’s when products were expensive, but were made to last. We are living in the age of disposable electronics. What you buy is not built to last, so don’t fix it, replace it.

Replacing a product after a period of use with newer, better, more feature rich and more up to date version is better than having an old one repaired on many accounts. Let it serve you for as long as it will and when its time comes, upgrade to a newer version. Gateway and Dell – makers of portable computers have both admitted that they have seen minimal increase in costs for warranty claims after they started offering extended warranties, but the increase in revenue grew substantially. That means that prior to offering extended warranties their cost of taking care of regular warranties may have been in the $16 Million mark, but as they started offering extended warranties, the cost of taking care of claims rose to $17 Million mark, but their revenue grew by $33 Million which came from sales of extended warranties.

Extended Warranty Scams

Savvy buyers know that many specialty coverages are a scam. Good example is rust protection for your new car. Car sales men like to offer special coating for your newly purchased car and since you are spending $20,000 on it, you should definitely consider investing additional $1,000 to have your body covered with special anti rust coating, right? It would normally make sense, unless you look deeper into it. And if you do, you find out that car body already comes with 10 years of anti rust manufacturer’s warranty. In other words, car dealership will try to sell you protection for your car that will do the same job factory applied protection does.

This scam is by no means limited to car dealerships. It is not uncommon to have extended warranties for laptops that cover certain parts of it for certain periods of time. But if you were to take a closer look at what is covered by an extended warranty, you would see such thing as “3 years replacement coverage for RAM chips” but oddly enough, most RAM chips come covered for a minimum of 3 years by the manufacturer.

Scams of that sort are very common. Retail outlets will try to sell you something your purchased item already comes with by default. This is yet another reason that makes purchasing extended warranties NOT worth it!

Who Does The Extended Warranty Work?

If you buy an extended warranty with a retailer, it will be the retailer or their sub-contractors who will perform the warranty work. During the course of my research, I have spoken with a number of people who had purchased extended warranties. Vast majority has never made any use of it. Few could have used it, but after 3 years they were not able to locate the receipts which nulled their eligibility for a warranty claim. Then there were a couple who did need to get something repaired and they each had bad experience. It was not uncommon to be told that something is not covered by an extended warranty, however even if a legitimate claim was made, the repair will be performed by their own people who often lack quality expertise and the job will be poorly done. There is nothing more frustrating than wasting time waiting to get your unit repaired, only to find out that after you got it back eventually, the issue still persists.

Conclusion: Extended Warranty – Worth It or Not?

Two things to consider:

Unless you are buying an item made by a company notorious for lousy, prone to breaking products (most Apple products, for example), then an extended warranty is most likely NOT worth it
If you know yourself as someone who looks after their stuff and doesn’t abuse it, then extended warranty is most likely NOT worth it. If on the other hand you often leave your laptop on the floor covered with an endless pile of garbage so you may end up stepping on it cause you couldn’t see it, and if you have a history of leaving your laptop on an anthill to let all forms of insects get into it, or if you use your laptop as tray for food and drink you consume while you are driving, then perhaps in such cases you should consider extended warranty. In your case it may be worth it.

In conclusion, and as a general rule – extended warranties are NOT worth it. They are extremely overpriced and in most cases end up being nothing more than money straight down the drain. If you do want to have peace of mind no matter the cost, then at least negotiate with the retailer and make sure you do not spend more than 20% of the item’s price on an extended warranty. Even so, if you are willing to admit that the item has a 20% chance of breaking down on you, then perhaps you should do your research better and opt for a brand that’s not notorious for having 20% of their product break down on consumers. If you go with a solid brand, chances that your purchase will serve you well are far greater than chances it will break.

Consider the odds. If you are buying portable electronics, chances of it getting stolen are far greater than chances of it breaking down. If you are going to spend the money, spend it on theft insurance or tracing software so you can increase the chances of recovery.

Products seldom break during the duration of extended warranty. Majority breaks while still under manufacturer’s warranty or die entirely long after your extended warranty has expired.

Given the cost of extended warranties, you are often better off using the money to start the “product repair fund” so you can take care of future issues and if none arise, use the fund towards the purchase of an upgraded version of the product.

If you make an extended warranty claim, you may not see your product for a month. If it’s something you need, such as a laptop for work, you will be screwed. You did not buy a laptop to be a month without it. Loss of productivity you will have incurred far outweighs the peace of mind offered by an extended warranty.

Finally, take a look at all the electronics you have bought throughout your life. How many of those have failed? Imagine you’d have bought an extended warranty for each of them – where would you be now? Would you have saved money or wasted it?

Buying an extended warranty is like going to a casino. The party that takes money from you, does so by making you believe that you are likely to get a lot in return. At the end of the day, whether you spent the money in a casino or for an extended warranty, it’s the receiver of your money who wins, not you. It’s a gamble. That’s why they do it. It’s because they know the odds are heavily against you. On occasion, someone wins, but vast majority lose. Though the reason why stores like Best Buy or Future Shop where I bought my laptop are able to offer near no mark up prices for products is because they rip people off on extended warranties. So I guess I better shut up now because without extended warranties, they would have to bump prices of the products they sell up to stay afloat. The more people buy extended warranties, the more it ensures low, near wholesale prices for products. Yeah, extended warranties are not worth it, but they ensure extremely low prices for gadgets I need. Keep buying, people 😉

Formatted CF Card Files Recovered

As soon as I got back to Canada from the Dominican Republic where my laptop was stolen I started the process of data recovery from the Compact Flash card I have previously formatted. I believed I will be able to recover most of the files that previously occupied the unused space of the card, however there were many files on the card that were taken after I have formatted it. The space these new files occupied was unrecoverable. The question now stood – which of the files missing will I not get back because the sectors have been overwritten with new data.

I must say it comes with great relief that the process of recovery went without major problems and I did recover most of the files I lost when my laptop was stolen. There were more than 7,000 pictures on my CF card when I formatted it and I recovered more than 5,000. The files I was not able to recover were those that were overwritten by new files and unless I get my laptop back (I still keep hoping that by some magic divine intervention I’ll get it back) I won’t see them again. However I can’t complain because after I found out that my laptop was stolen and realized that I lost all of the pictures I took in South East Asia, I was truly devastated. Seeing most of the pictures again was a great relief.

Photo: Sandisk Extreme III Compact Flash Card I Recovered Formatted Data From

This basically means that I’ll be able to continue with my journal without the need to skip and never cover the rest of my trip in Cambodia and my enjoyable stay in Vietnam and Thailand. Most of the pictures I am missing are from Siem Reap, Cambodia. Those include smaller temples in and around town, and small venues and cultural events I visited or participated in before going to Angkor Wat Archaeological Park. Occasional image here and there is missing from the rest of the card as well, but I’m still happy and grateful that I was able to get 5,000 unspoiled pictures back. I do not have any of the emails I sent and received since August 2009, I don’t have any contact information on people I met during my travels, I lost all of the documents I was working on, website updates, videos and so on and unless I get my laptop back, I may never see those again, but at least I have most of my pictures back because pictures will serve as memories for years and years to come.

I have a lot of work ahead of me trying to catch up with where I was before my laptop got stolen. So much headache caused by one malicious person who did not hesitate to steal from me while I was helping her. It was a really painful and expensive way to pay for my willingness to make the world a better place. I keep my head up high and remain positive about the fact that for each bad person, there are a dozen nice people. Getting over this horrible experience will take some time, catching up with loss it caused will take a lot of money and extra work, but I do keep my head up high and continue looking forward because no matter how much I like it or not, I cannot change the past. It has happened. I had my laptop stolen for being trusting and eager to help. It’s time to learn from my own mistakes and move forward. I did all I could to recover my laptop and so far it has not paid off, however If I am meant to get it back, I will. In the meantime, I’m moving on and looking forward to new, better life ahead of me.

You Are At Your Most Vulnerable When Helping Someone

Theft of my laptop taught me a valuable lesson – you are at your most vulnerable when you are helping someone. You are simply never more prone to exploit by dishonest people than when you are helping them. Out of your sincere will to help, you go all out to make the world a better place and when you do it, when you offer your unconditional help, you do it believing that receiving party will appreciate your efforts and will be grateful for what you have done for them. And most people would. When you are stranded and can’t get yourself to a destination with your own devices, you will rely upon unconditional help of a random stranger and if such random stranger does offer their help – they will have taken a big weight off your shoulders. If I were in such position, I would make damn sure the person who helped me along knows that I am endlessly grateful for what they’ve done for me.

Trouble is – when you are helping someone, the last thing you expect is for them to take advantage of you and rob you while you are doing your good deed. Whether gratification is expressed or not, it is experienced. At least you who are the one helping subconsciously believe that because you are providing that other person with something they can’t provide themselves with, that they would be sincerely grateful. You know you would be grateful and you just wouldn’t fathom the possibility of them stealing from you (as happened to me) or worse.

Last thing you anticipate when you are helping someone is that they will take advantage of the situation for their own, selfish enrichment at your expense. Thieves have no class nowadays. They’ll stop at nothing and will intentionally put themselves in the situation of being in need of help and if someone who has the means to help stops and offers it, they will abuse it because they know that the helping one is at their most vulnerable, not even in their wildest dream anticipating it from a person they are helping.

It’s truly sad that this is really happening in the world today. When you would least expect it, when you should be receiving endless gratitudes, some people won’t hesitate to steal from you. This makes further helping much trickier. I’ve seen this happening to volunteers in South East Asia. Same thing – they flew across the big pond to help underprivileged people. Those people, people who were receiving financial support as well as support in form of work and shared know how did not hesitate to steal from those helping while they were around improving their lives. It does get worse though as I have also known a girl who was raped while volunteering by the very people she was helping.

Just as was with me, also this girl would never have prepared herself for the fact that an attack against her could be orchestrated by the very people she was helping. She was not ready for it, because you expect people to be grateful for putting your own life and interests aside to help them along. And they abused it.

You naturally tend to be suspicious with people you don’t know or have nothing to do with. If they are around you, you will be looking after yourself and your stuff eagerly because that’s a natural response to such situation. However when you are in a position of helping someone, natural response is to expect gratitude. You don’t actually anticipate them to start singing praises in your name, but you naturally expect them to feel thankful and will be glad they got help. Because of that you are likely to drop your guards. You believe those you are helping will react to help offered the same way you would – by showing appreciation to the person and their belonging and guarding them with your life. And that’s why you are at your most vulnerable when you are helping someone. It’s a lesson I took for my own too late and paid for it immensely.

There are more dishonest people out there than I would like to admit. They make helping others difficult but for as long as the society around them remains poor, they know that others will be willing to help and that means continuous supply of potentially easy victims who do not yet realize that they are at their most vulnerable when they are helping. The results are devastated lives and loss of faith in humanity. It truly is hard to get over it when someone you were helping takes such savage advantage of you while you are expecting their gratitude. This kind of limits your future options and you’ll think twice before you help someone again. In my case – I know I will not let that stop me; however I will limit this type of unconditional help in less civilized societies. I won’t hesitate giving a lift to hitchhikers in Europe, but will pass right by them in Central America or South East Asia.

Reporting Stolen Laptop

As part of my desperate efforts to salvage as much as I could after nasty laptop theft I quickly proceeded to let all relevant companies know that my laptop was stolen. When reporting a stolen laptop, I first thought of contacting Microsoft with the serial number of the operating system as Microsoft releases regular updates for Windows and if the thief or her accomplices broke into the laptop successfully, there might be a request for update from this particular serial number when it is connected to the internet. I certainly thought Microsoft may be able to trace the attempts to upgrade Widows Vista my laptop had installed (given unique serial number) and report it to the police or better yet, lock the operating system as it could be done with proven pirated copy.

Secondly, I reported stolen laptop to Samsung because they are the makers of it. Again – I wanted them to have my laptop’s serial number flagged as “stolen” in case there is a request for support or any other contact made using my laptop’s serial number. I knew the thief herself would not attempt to contact Samsung, but she was no computer user. She clearly stole it with intentions to sell it. And buyer of stolen laptop may eventually attempt to contact Samsung support which could lead to solid traces and possible recovery of the laptop.

Finally, I have also reported stolen laptop to Future Shop where I purchased the unit. Given that I also paid more than $300 for extended service plan, I thought they’d be willing to at least show some form of support to their loyal customer.

Sadly, each of the reports resulted in response that didn’t help. Microsoft Canada responded in less than 24 hours for which I commend them. Amazing support with fast response times. The response was written in an understandable language and to the point, sadly I was informed that due to privacy commitments, Microsoft cannot trace lost or stolen software when used by another individual, even if used illegally and was advised to report the theft to the police (which I have already done in the meantime). So much for high hopes with Microsoft, but their response was understandable. If they acted otherwise, everybody would complain that they invade their privacy too much and have too much remote control over their property. Ahh well.

Response from Samsung was way more useless. I got an email a few days later stating the following:

Unfortunately, the number “10126029-J502” is not the correct serial number, we are unable to accommodate your request at this point.

Well duh – it is not a valid number, but all other information I have provided when reporting stolen laptop was information exactly matching information I have registered my laptop with. I have also applied for free upgrade to Windows 7 that was provided complimentary by Samsung so they had all my information on file – my name, address, postal code, phone number, when it was purchased, where it was purchased, the model number, my email address, etc. Samsung has all this info on file yet their rep didn’t bother to verify it. At the time of reporting, I only had the receipt issued by the Future Shop which listed the item number in place of the serial number and that caused all the confusion. But it’s not like I had the laptop so I could flip it upside down to provide verified serial number. The rep could have at least gone through hassle of looking up my info to see that all other details provided were bang on, except from the serial number I had no means to get right. Useless Samsung rep and they do it just when you’re stressed the hell out of this world.

This was still nothing compared to the response from Future Shop. These guys simply did nothing. No response, not even as much as a middle finger. Just complete and thorough ignore on my desperate situation. Even if they just did as much as Microsoft – apologize that they are not in the position to help but would advice me to go to the police and file a report with them. This is polite and shows professionalism. Future Shop and professionalism are obviously two terms that don’t belong together. Future Shop only cares about getting your money when selling you the product but once they got the money, their care for you ends. Complete and utter disappointment there. Ignoring my report entirely is the lowest blow of all.

I followed up with Samsung by responding to the email which told me that they won’t do anything because I didn’t provide correct serial number only to find it back in my email inbox two weeks later. It bounced so no one did anything about it. I ended up calling them when I got back to Canada and my case was escalated to higher management who then contacted me via email to apologize for mishandling the situation and assured me that my serial number is flagged in their system and will notify me as well as the international police should they hear about my unit in some way.

What could I have done better when reporting stolen laptop? I was in the foreign country where I got robbed. I needed to file reports as soon as possible because the time was against me. I did my best given that I didn’t have the actual unit on me to verify correct serial number. None of the reports did me any good. Microsoft was the only company that responded in timely manner and did it very professionally. I’m still in further talks with Microsoft to see if there is anything that can be done. Samsung was a disappointment given the urgency and distress accompanying the report. Above all, Future Shop proved to be the worst electronics vendor in the world. Horrible, absolutely horrible mishandling of situation on their part.

Politur Dominicana aka Dominican Republic Tourist Police

As soon as I found out that my laptop was stolen, I wanted to report the crime with the Dominican Republic Tourist Police known domestically as Politur Dominicana. Because looking up Politur in Santo Domingo proved excessively difficult, I eventually reported the theft to the Policia Nacional which is the national police of the Dominican Republic used primarily for investigation of crime not involving tourists. Unfortunately Policia Nacional officers don’t speak any foreign languages so communication is difficult and while they are pretty much useless and will make you feel that they are filing a report, but nothing will get done on your case, they are actually much better than Politur. If Policia Nacional seems completely useless and uninterested in investigating any crimes, Politur is even bigger a joke. Politur is there to show intentions of the Dominican government to ensure safety for all travellers, but when it comes to it, Politur will do even less than Policia Nacional would.

I reported my laptop theft to the Policia Nacional because I was unable to find the office of Politur Dominicana and everyone I’d asked for help was useless and unable to offer any assistance in the regard. But after I was done, I still wanted to bring it up with Politur thinking that they might be more interested in investigating the crime because I was a tourist and that’s what they are – a Tourist police. Politur officers are also supposed to speak at least one foreign language each so I thought I might be able to explain the theft in more detail, detail Policia Nacional never cared about hearing, such as the description of the suspect or where I picked her up and dropped her off.

When I got my first chance to go on the internet at the internet cafe, I looked up the Politur website and contacted them via their contact form with al relevant details, including my case’s file number so they can look me up with the National Police. They have never even bothered to respond back. Not even as much as just acknowledging that they have received my email and will be processing it. Not even as much as telling me that I can go eff myself cause they are too busy cruising their motorcycles. Simply nothing – they have likely just deleted my email to never be bothered with again.

Uselessness of Politur Dominicana was later confirmed by a person from the Canadian embassy in the Dominican Republic. Upon my return back to Canada, I found out that serial number I have provided Policia Nacional with was not actual serial number of my stolen laptop, but its item number, which is a whole different thing. This is the number that appeared on the invoice from Future Shop where I had purchased the laptop and it was the only number I had. I thought it was the serial number, but for some reason Future Shop doesn’t put serial numbers of their receipts, but rather irrelevant item numbers. I still had the box my laptop came in so after I’d returned home, I checked out the box to verify the serial number, only to find out that number on the receipt is not it.

I really didn’t think Dominican police will do anything about my case, but I still wanted to make sure they had correct serial number on file. Sometimes when larger operations are pulled – such as busts of drug houses – various articles are seized which oftentimes include stolen items. If during such unrelated bust my laptop was recovered, they would not have it registered as stolen because my file shows different serial number on it, not one matching the unit. Hence even though seemingly pointless, I still wanted to make sure Policia Nacional had my correct serial number on file.

But how would I go about having it changed? Politur is useless. They don’t act on any emails sent to them so that would be the waste of time. Policia Nacional are too busy sleeping to be bothered. So the only way to get it updated seemed by getting Canadian ambassador call them and get them to do it. Embassy people are paid from taxes of us, regular Canadians. It is their duty and their purpose to assist all Canadians who need assistance in that given country. So when I emailed Canadian Embassy in the Dominican Republic, I was happy to have received a response the following day letting me know that the captain with whom I filed my report was contacted and updated my file with correct serial number. It’s always a smart thing to do to contact the embassy of your country in the foreign land if you get in trouble there. That’s precisely why they are there, paid by dollars of tax payers.

In my case, Mr. Yanik Beauregard who’s Senior Consular Officer in the Office of the Embassy of Canada in Punta Cana showed me that he’s worth his money and took immediate and appropriate action to assist the citizen he represents and contacted me back in timely manner to inform me that my request has been completed and that the file has been updated as per my instructions. His response included the following:

I have contacted the Department of Crimes and Investigations of Policia Nacional and spoke personally with Capitan Dipre, who wrote your report. He informed me that they are still investigating your case and will inform us as soon as they have new developments. I also provided him with the proper serial number of the laptop (ZBBX93ES700101), as requested below.

For your information, the Embassy of Canada does not perform investigations in foreign countries. This has to be done by the local authorities. We do liaise with them and collaborate and exchange information in order to help Canadian Citizens. You have done the right thing by reporting the theft to the local police (Policia Nacional).

Great job, Canadian Embassy in the Dominican Republic and thank you for swift and useful actions. But let me get back to useless Politur – don’t assume for one second that just because Politur are meant to be there for you the tourist, that they will actually be there for you. Politur is useless.

Deleted Files Recovery

As I have mentioned before, the cost of a stolen laptop is much higher than just the value of the laptop itself. And for me that loss was immense. I have been working on upgrades for my websites to increase positive cash flow (aka passive income) and most of it went poof with my laptop, all of my email communication, both sent and received was dealt with using Microsoft Outlook 2007 I had installed on the laptop which means it went all poof after theft, including saved contacts of people I met and/or dealt with during my travels, various documents I was working on were on the laptop as well but most of all – I had all of my pictures and videos from the travels so far on that machine and with it gone, the media which I have not backed up were gone too. This was one of the biggest hits I took when I got my laptop stolen. Things around me were happening faster than I could write about it in my journal but I had pictures so I didn’t have to worry about anything. Pictures served as solid reminder of everything I went though so I was able to recall all memories and post about it even with months of delay. But with laptop gone, my memories went with it. It literally meant near complete paralysis of my journal with full interruption of updates until I could recover and resume writing from a new standpoint with all travels I have experienced so far missing.

This was a loss I was having hard time handling because pictures would keep the memories alive even after many years. I would be able to go through them at any point in my life and re-live the adventures I have gone through by just browsing through old photographs. Some of the photographs were extremely precious too – many involved people meeting with which changed my life. And now it was gone. The pain I was feeling could not be described.

My Canon digital camera uses Compact Flash cards to save captured images on. I was very reluctant to erase any of them as the card was getting filled up but new adventures were taking place every day and with them new pictures were being taken every day. The card I had in my camera had 8GB storage capacity – that’s a whole pile of images I could store on it. However the more images I had on it, the slower the previewing was getting. When I had 6000 images on the card, each time I wanted to preview an image taken, the process took forever so when I eventually filled the card up entirely, I made sure all of the images were saved on my laptop’s hard drive and I proceeded with the clear-up of the CF card by formatting. I remember I was in Pattaya, Thailand when I formatted my card.

With all the images safely stored on my laptop (at least I thought they were safe – I failed to take the over the top thievery in the Dominican Republic into account) I started using the card again knowing I had crap loads of space on it for thousands of new pictures. By the time my laptop was stolen, I had about 1/5 of the card filled with new pictures. At that point I realized that even though my laptop is gone and all pictures I had on it went with it, I still have my Compact Flash card on which the pictures were originally stored. And sure – I have formatted the card in the meantime removing all of the images from it and used part of its storage capacity to capture new images, but I knew very well that part of the card which has not been used up with new images would still store traces of old images and I may be able to recover some of them. I studied electrical engineering in high school and at the university and worked as a computer tech most of my working life. I consider myself to be reasonably computer savvy with vast programming knowledge and thorough understanding on how computer components, including storage devices such as hard drives are built. Besides, I’ve had previous experience with deleted files recovery only this time I was gonna do it for myself, not my friend.

When I first started working on computers, the machines used 386 Intel processors and ran on MS DOS operating systems. Because I had to put up with countless hard drive failures and data recovery (mostly due to hardware failure, not accidental deletion), I studied the hard drives and knew the process of how they are built and how their internal structure works backwards. When I first started messing around with computers in school, hard drives did not have FAT tables (File Allocation Tables) so you’d have to know physical location of each file on the hard drive in order to access it. Introduction of FAT tables made it much easier as now you’d just need to know file’s name and search for it as the appropriate sectors associated with this file would be called using references in the FAT table. I knew that deletion of files (accidental or intentional) simply removes the reference of those files from the FAT table but hard drive sectors still bear the data unless overwritten by new data. If the reference of the file is removed from the FAT table, the file will not be allocated and will appear as non existent on said hard drive. However unless data in sectors this file occupied were replaced with new data that are part of a whole new file, the recovery of that file is possible.

Since I had enough experience recovering lost or deleted files from hard drives, I was once called for help by a friend of mine who accidently SHIFT deleted wrong directory which contained important pictures. She was meaning to delete a different directory but clicked on the wrong name and her fingers acted faster than her brain was able to process what was happening and since she was used to SHIFT deleting her files (to bypass the storage in the Deleted Files Bin – which she found irritating), the whole directory went poof for her in a click of a button. She freaked out and unable to undo her actions, she called me up. This was my first real case of deleted files recovery I performed since I switched careers from being a computer tech to being a computer programmer. Obviously, my immediate instructions for my unfortunate friend who accidently SHIFT deleted her files were to quit doing anything on a computer, not save a thing even if she was working on something and disconnect it from the internet immediately. Deleted files are for the most part recoverable for as long as you do not replace the data in sectors where they were stored with new data. So if you save something you are working on, it may be saved in sectors used by files you are trying to recover which will render these files unrecoverable. Same goes for use of the internet as temporary internet files are stored on the computer’s hard drive and if you were saving your files on the same drive, they may be overwritten by the system as you use the internet. Hence your first and most important step in your efforts to recover deleted files is to prevent any new data from being written on the hard drive.

After I have given these instructions to my friend, I came over to her and was able to successfully recover about 98% of her accidentally deleted files. Sure, a couple were missing and a couple were corrupt, but she got vast majority back and after thinking that she may have lost them all, this was more than win for her. She was really glad I saved her pics.

And now with my laptop stolen and all pictures that were on it gone, I had one last chance to possibly recover some of them from the Compact Flash card I had in my camera. As obvious first step, I immediately stopped taking any pictures because with each new picture taken, I would irreversibly lose one or more of old pictures that may still be on that card. I turned my camera off and pulled the card out. The next step was to wait until I get back to Canada so I can get on a virus free computer and attempt recovery of deleted pictures. They were more than simply deleted as I have formatted the card prior to reuse, but I kept my hopes high and believed it will still be possible to recover most of the files from the space that has not been used up. Sadly, good part of the card had new pictures on it already, including some pictures I took in the Dominican Republic prior to laptop theft and whatever old files this space stored were forever gone, but most of card’s storage capacity has not been overwritten so chances of file recovery did exist. I could not wait to come back to Canada to see where exactly I’m at and whether this deleted files recovery can bring me some of my memories back.

Laptop Theft Prevention Tips

It wasn’t until I had my laptop stolen when I realized how important laptop theft prevention is. Statistically, in the United States alone, one laptop is stolen every minute. On a global scale the numbers are frightening. What’s even worse is the recovery rate – more than 97% of all stolen laptops is never recovered. Given that laptop theft is such frequently occurring crime and that chances of recovery are next to none, laptop theft prevention is absolutely crucial for every laptop owner. I have learned my lesson the hard way and it opened up my eyes to the reality and lead me to realize what I should have done to avoid getting my laptop stolen. I’m gonna share my hard way learned Laptop Theft Prevention Tips with you. Some of them are tips to help recover if theft or loss occur but they are as important as theft prevention tips hence are included:

Watermark Your Laptop

I’m not kidding – nobody does that but that’s the best laptop theft prevention tip ever. You won’t find this advice on any other list of laptop theft prevention tips, but let me explain where the power of it lies and how to properly execute it:

Watermarking your laptop basically means that you will freehand draw something on it in visible, large letters – something that will identify you as the rightful owner of the laptop and will identify everyone else as a thief. My stolen laptop was white. When I was buying it, I saw the white color as something very distasteful as it made my laptop look like a Mac Book which is truly awful. I have eventually decided to go for it since it was the best laptop with the best configuration and price available at the time. Looks were secondary, but overtime I’ve grown to like it despite Mac like white exterior color.

I should have taken advantage of white exterior and bought thick black permanent marker and write right across the case my name and email address. It’s no different to watermarking the images you upload on the internet to help identify you as the copyright owner if someone steals it to use illegally, or to putting a name tag on your check in luggage at the airport. Irremovable watermark on the laptop’s case makes it an easily and immediately recognizable unit. When reporting the theft to the police, if your laptop was watermarked, you would be able to offer an information that instantly identifies your laptop. There could be hundreds of thousands of white Samsung laptops out there, but had I watermarked it, there would be only one white Samsung laptop with huge handwriting which says my name and my email address. How is that for linking the laptop to myself?

Laptops that are not watermarked look like any other laptops, whereas a laptop that is watermarked looks like your particular one that was stolen. That is a powerful deterrent for a thief, a powerful deterrent for a potential buyer and a powerful means to make it back to you in case it ends up in wrong hands. I bought white laptop even though I didn’t like white color, because you don’t buy laptops for the looks. You buy them because they suit you for the use you intend to use them for. Looks are completely secondary so spoiling those looks with massive watermark will not diminish its functionality, but may help turn potential thieves off and even if stolen, could hugely assist in recovery. This is the best and easiest to apply laptop theft prevention tip ever. Most people buy laptops to use them. Unless you are one of few who buy laptops to sell them, then watermarking is not a good option, but if you are coughing up a grand so you can do computing on the road, watermarking your laptop can pay for itself in more ways than one.

And don’t worry if your laptop is not white like mine was. Even if it’s black – get yourself silver marker or use your sisters nail-polish. As an alternative, you can also use engraving. Carve your name on laptop’s lid. There’s no way anyone could remove it so your name will forever be associated with true ownership of this particular laptop.

Back-Up Your Data!

Important! Important! Important! Super important and then some. Back up your data often and always. And then back up again and when you’re done go and make another back up. Never neglect this need because it only takes a split second and your laptop could be gone. And like me, you will lose more than just the laptop itself. I lost my memories and the ability to post new updates from the rest of my trip in South East Asia. I lost work in progress I had on my websites, I lost important documents, sent and received emails, contact information on people I met during my travels – so much lost because I did not back up my data. I simply did not consider it an option that someone could steal my laptop. but as it goes, there are all kinds of people out there, including such who will steal from you when you are most vulnerable – when you are helping them because you expect them to be grateful not to be looking to rob you.

There are plain and simple two kinds of people in the world – those who back up their data regularly and those who have not lost their data yet. Data loss awaits around the corner to happen to you. Sooner or later some freak accident takes place and your data will be gone. Unless you have a solid back up (preferably more than one) everything that matters to you will be irreversibly gone. Do not ever neglect that. Smart people learn from other people’s mistake – be a smart person and learn from my mistake. Back up your data right now. You turn your head one way, turn it back and your laptop could be gone. Thieves are extremely skilled these days and know how to go about stealing successfully. Back ups are important. Besides, you can buy a large enough USB stick for a few bucks which will make backing up easy, quick and inexpensive. You can go through DVD burning or use of online backup services – the more you use, the better but even if you don’t like the hassle, you still have many options available to you. Do it. Don’t be like me thinking that this could never happen to you. Back up your data right now. It’s that important. I won’t hesitate to repeat it like a broken record over and over because it is the strongest truths of all.

Never Store Sensitive Data on a Laptop

As mentioned above, laptop theft is a common occurrence. Don’t assume for one second that it could never happen to you. I’m the most careful guy in the world who also knows what he’s doing when he’s on a computer yet I had my laptop stolen. On some days you are less alert than on others, on some days you are frustrated by external sources – all of this affects you and leaves you potentially vulnerable to laptop theft. And thieves are always out there and always looking for a guy or girl who is not having the best day of their lives today. When it rains it pours and misery likes company. I was having the shittiest day in a long time when I had my laptop stolen. Always assume that thieves are out there and ask yourself: what would happen if they stole my laptop today? Act accordingly!

Assume that you could have your laptop stolen in the next minute, so never have any of your login information set to remember on your laptop. Never check off any of those “Remember Me on This Computer” check boxes. Never choose to have any cookies stored locally to prevent you from always having to type in log in credentials when you are visiting your favorite sites. That especially applies when dealing with bank accounts or other institutions where financial information is exchanged. It’s much easier to have to type it in each time you need to get in the site than to have to go through recovery of moved assets or worse. Always act as if your laptop could get stolen any minute. You have no idea how much headache you save yourself from.

Set Up Boot Password

This is one thing I did and it still works on my behalf even with laptop gone. It is quite possible that thief or her accomplices have not yet got into my laptop only thanks to the boot password. When it comes to laptop theft aftermath, this is one of the strongest protection layers you have. To set up your boot password on a PC, you need to access BIOS menu which can be done by pressing one of the F keys on your keyboard. It used to be F1 or F2 or DEL back on older versions of Windows, but with my Samsung laptop it was the F10 key. It may be different on different models but usually before the operating system starts loading, the message briefly pops letting you know what to press to access the BIOS setup utility menu. It could be a single key or a combination of keys (such as CTRL + ALT + ESC).

Once you are in the BIOS setup utility, find where to set up boot password (could also be called user password, system password, or power-on password) and choose something that is not a dictionary word and is difficult or impossible to guess. I myself was using foreign word from an unusual language and had it purposefully misspelled. Having a Windows password is also good, but this is easier to bypass. Boot password is much more difficult and depending on the version of BIOS installed, could be near impossible without actual hardware replacements or resets.

Once you have your boot password successfully set up, it will be the first thing you will need to enter for the laptop to start doing anything. It won’t even initiate loading of the operating system unless correct boot password was entered. It could be a bit of a hassle to have to enter it each time you start up your computer, but you’ll be happy you had it.

Password Protect Screensaver Resumption

I had my screensaver set up to turn on after 3 minutes of inactivity. This is a very short time, but considering that it’s a laptop we’re talking about, I never wanted anyone to possibly get into it easily when I need to get on the phone or have other distraction taking my focus away from the laptop. This was a great idea even though created a little bit of a headache at times. An important part of this set up was to require a Windows password on resumption so when screensaver was activate, when the mouse was moved it went away, but required password to let a person in the operating system. Very good idea with laptops and a highly recommended theft prevention tip.

Install Stolen Laptop Tracking Software

Again, this was one of the things I have severely neglected and it limited my recovery options after my laptop was stolen. Laptop theft recovery software is not perfect, but at least it’s something that can help track down your laptop. There are several options out there but none of them seems perfect, however they are better than nothing:

LoJack for Laptops is a stolen laptop tracking program from Absolute Software. It requires annual subscription payments but Absolute has members on staff who know what to do when theft takes place. When you ping them regarding laptop theft, they will report it to appropriate authorities and work with them on recovery taking a lot off your shoulders. Their software will allow you to take certain actions when your stolen laptop connects to internet – you could remotely delete data if for example your laptop had sensitive personal information on it or you could continue tracking it with quite precise location trace. If your laptop is also equipped with a webcam, LoJack for Laptops will take a screenshot of what webcam can see which will likely uncover what the thief looks like right there. Since LoJack for Laptops resides in your BIOS not as part of the operating system, it activates upon start up of the laptop. You can buy 1 year of LoJack for Laptop service for $59.99 or 3 years for $109.99. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like LoJack for Laptops works reliably (if at all) outside of the USA. More info on Absolute.com.

GadgetTrak is another software similar to LoJack for Laptops. It is installed on the machine and resides idling until you activate it using a web browser. So in the event of laptop theft, you can either go to an internet cafe or use your cell phone with enabled web browsing and with a click of a button the software on the laptop takes pictures of what your webcam can see and will send you its geographical location. The software promises to be privacy friendly claiming that all info collected by the software is only sent to your email or your flickr account, not to the company. GadgetTrak subscription services start at $19.99 a year. More info on GadgetTrak.com.

Prey Project – unlike above mentioned two softwares, Prey is an open source solution, which means it is free to use and free to modify. Prey is supported by a team of enthusiastic programmers from around the world and is under constant development so improved features are coming all the time. It works great and does exactly what it says it would (tracking stolen laptops) but unlike LoJack for Windows, it doesn’t have manpower behind it to work with the police in efforts to help recover your stolen laptop. Prey resides silently on the laptop and checks periodically whether there are any open wifi signals and if so, it connects to the internet and checks whether it has been “ordered” to start sending tracking information to the rightful owner. The downside is that because it is an installed software, it can be removed or bypassed from the system if laptop is handled by a computer savvy thief. LoJack resides in computer BIOS which makes it much more resilient to removal. Being open source, Prey can also be abused to track other people – if I installed in on your computer, I could at any time toggle the switch to “stolen” and the software would send me your location, your IP and MAC addresses, a screenshot of your desktop and a shot from your laptop’s webcam. It would do what it is programmed to do which can also be used for unfair purposes. As an inexpensive (understand: FREE) laptop theft tracking software, Prey is amazing. You will just have to take care of notifying authorities on your own. You will get info, but Prey doesn’t have the resources to do anything with that info on your behalf, unlike LoJack for Laptops, for example. More info on PreyProject.com.

Phoenix FailSafe – I was told about Phoenix FailSafe by Samsung representative after I have reported my laptop theft to them. Failsafe is apparently routinely installed nn most Dell and Samsung computers, but because Q320 is such a new model, FailSafe was not on it (and still is not). It does look like a useable solution. Similar to LoJack for Laptops, FailSafe operates at BIOS layer making it operational as soon as the computer starts executing first instructions, rather than after the operating system has been loaded and is more resistant to software and hardware removal. Because FailSafe operates on BIOS level, it can safely and securely disable the computer and lock the hard drive. I have not used FailSafe because my machine didn’t come pre-installed with it, but it appears to be pretty solid and near fool-proof. When I get myself a replacement laptop, I will be looking at this option more closely. Additional info on FailSafe.com.

EDIT – it appears as though FailSafe service cannot be purchased. It can only be had if it’s part of the new computer you are buying. Select Dell Notebooks and Samsung Go Netbooks come with it and can have the feature activated for $39.95 for 1 year or $79.95 for 3 years. It’s a solid solution that resides in computer BIOS and will not stop working on your behalf even if thief replaced hard drives with new operating system, but inability to have it on any laptop limits its usability. Perhaps Phoenix will offer an option to have it installed on any computer soon.

Mark Down Laptop’s Info

Always have vital information about your laptop at a place easily accessible to you. The best bet is to email it to your web based email address so you can access it from any computer that’s connected to the internet and find it there if needed. You will need at least model name and number and a serial number. Additional information, such as screen size, RAM memory, HDD size, when it was purchased, etc could also be helpful.

Buy Laptop Lock

Laptop Locks are fairly inexpensive cables that can be securely fastened to most laptops (I have not seen any new laptop without a Kensington Security Slot for a Laptop Lock). The other end of the cable you can secure either against something stationary (a desk for example) or something large, such as your bag which will make it more difficult to sneakily steal it. It’s a small investment but a big help and a possible buster of all laptop theft attempts when dealt with properly.

Use Full Disk Encryption

Having your hard drive encrypted is not a costly matter and is not difficult at all. Stolen laptops often end up with replaced hard drivers or get the original hard driver formatted but thief may attempt to read the data on a removed hard drive first to see if any interesting information that could help him come by your money can be found there. Full Disc Encryption cannot get you your data back, but it can prevent the thief from easily reading it. At least you’d know that they can’t access everything you had on your hard drive even if you can’t get it back.

Don’t Take Your Eyes Off Your Laptop

This is the single most important laptop theft prevention tip in existence. This was the reason why the thief who stole my laptop succeeded with it – I had my laptop on the rear seat while I was driving. It was off my sight while I had my eyes locked on the road. This creates suitable conditions for both opportunist thieves as well as pros that are always on a look out for something available to steal (like the one who stole my laptop). Due to slick, flat design of laptops, they can be easily and quickly snuck inside a bag and will not stick out to be easily noticed once there. They are plain and simple easy targets for theft. Never ever take your eyes off your laptop or when you go back to lend your eyes on it, it may not be there anymore. Disguise your laptop as much as you can and if possible, don’t allow others to see you have it in the first place. If you need to use it in a public place, make sure you use Laptop Lock (see above) and have it fastened to something stationary. In case like mine – if you are driving, have your laptop locked against the door handle and if possible, lock it in the trunk where no one can get. If you can’t have your laptop firmly in your hands or in your sight, make sure it is locked up safely.

Don’t Use Laptop Cases for Your Laptop

Using non descriptive bags will not raise alarms in thieves’ eyes that you have a laptop on you. If you walk around with a carrying case designed for laptops, especially if it’s a brand name case which bears a name of a laptop manufacturer instantly identifies you as a person with a laptop and thieves will have their eyes locked on you and will wait for the right moment to steal.

Use Privacy Sweeping Software

Install and regularly use privacy sweeping software to hide traces of your online activities. I have been using free to install and use Advanced System Care from IObit and have been very happy with it. It speeds up your computer and can prevent crashes, but it will also remove traces of your on line activities so if unlucky event of laptop theft befalls on you, the thieves won’t have full access to what you have done on line, which sites you have visited and what log in names you used since you started using the laptop. It’s easy and free to install IObit utility and it does a great job. More info and download on IObit.com.

I hope these Laptop Theft Prevention Tips were helpful. The best advice I can give you is that you learn from my mistake and take preventative measures to ensure that laptop theft doesn’t happen to you. Also take preventative measures so when it does happen to you, so you can maximize your chances of laptop recovery or deletion of sensitive data. According to the FBI statistics, a laptop is stolen every 53 seconds in the USA alone and less than 3% are recovered. Imagine what it’s like on a worldwide scale. Laptop theft is obviously a popular one and hard to revert, yet laptops are devices that bear some of the most important and most sensitive information. Guard them with care and take all steps necessary to prevent laptop theft. Tips provided within are offered with best intentions to help you avoid the same hell I had to and still have to go through because I have neglected some of those. Laptop theft is horrible, learn from these tips and apply them to avoid this crap.

Laptop Theft Prevention

Laptop theft prevention is something many laptop owners don’t give enough attention to. I know I never did myself and I come from a computer background. Taking care of your laptop and sensitive data it contains by preventing its theft should be the utmost priority of every laptop owner yet it is so often overlooked. Laptop is unlike anything else you own. I can guarantee you that if you had a thousand dollar laptop stolen along with a ten thousand dollar Swiss watch, it would be that laptop that will cause more grief and headache and will be missed more. It’s because laptop is not just a fancy piece of latest technology. Laptop is also a storage device for some of your most valuable and treasured memories, information, work and more. Laptop theft prevention should truly be the priority and focus of every laptop owner and should be taken care of before you leave safety of your home with your precious laptop in the bag.

When I realized my laptop was stolen, I had pictures of all that went with it flash before my eyes. Stolen laptop means more loss than just the top of the line, supercharged machine I paid $1.600 for. I had countless documents I was working on on that computer – they are all gone. I had all the pictures from my 4 months trip in South East Asia on it – they are also all gone. I had videos there, all sent and received emails, contact information on friends I have made throughout my travels so far, updates for website I was working on – so much of essential work and personal stuff – all gone with just one act of a thief. It gave me chills when I realized that I will no longer be able to update this journal because all of the pictures I had from the trip were on that laptop. Some of the experiences I had documented with pictures could be relived, but some could not. There were some precious once in a lifetime encounters with other people from different walks of life I may never have another chance to meet and even if I do, their life’s path will have changed. All of this was gone with laptop.

While I was still in the Dominican Republic, I went to the internet cafe in San Pedro de Macoris to take immediate care of essentials after laptop theft. I have neglected laptop theft prevention so I had to deal with the aftereffects. I had to change countless passwords and edit access information to my server, website databases, email address accounts and personally sensitive areas of websites I’m a member of. The efforts of securing my own life and preventing identity thefts have been ongoing since and already took weeks of my time. Laptop theft is so serious.

After I have taken care of personal information security, I proceeded with additional essential steps. I have immediately notified Microsoft with serial number of Windows Vista operating system that was installed on my stolen laptop in hope that they are able to trace when this serial number connects to the internet and makes requests from Microsoft servers for upgrades or other services. I have also notified Samsung with the serial number of the laptop requesting them to have this serial number flagged as stolen so they can immediately notify international police should there be a trace of it or a request for support from whoever becomes its next owner. Finally, I have also notified Future Shop of this laptop theft. I purchased this machine at Future Shop in Edmonton along with $300 worth of 3 year service plan.

Had I taken better care of laptop theft prevention I could have saved myself from all this headache. I didn’t get a chance to get on line until 2 days after laptop had been stolen so I hoped whoever ended up having the laptop is not too experienced a hacker so they won’t find a quick way past the boot password I had on the machine. I was so glad I had that boot password in place – it was a bit of a hassle to have to put up with it while I was using the laptop but now that laptop was gone it proved invaluable. It does little as laptop theft prevention, but it either completely disables, or at least significantly slows access to the computer itself.

I knew that the thief will have to take the laptop to an expert in order to gain access to it and even if he’s really good at computers, he’ll be having hard time hacking into this one. Boot password on a laptop will require actual hardware reset – is possible at all. Hacker would need to open the unit to get into its guts and manually find a way to bust BIOS or replace BIOS chip entirely. That’s a lot of headache if… again – possible at all.

Laptop theft is a horrible experience. I have never considered it an option which was a mistake on my part. Most of all, I would never have thought that someone I am helping would steal my laptop. It’s a horrible experience but it opened up my eyes to the fact that there are many bad people out there and one can never be too careful. It also proved that laptops are very easy to steal. Their flat profile allows for fast and easy slip into any bag and because of flat surface it will not stick out when inside the bag. I had a digital SLR camera on the rear seat along with the laptop which was much more expensive and had yet more expensive lens mounted on it. Yet the thief did not dare to steal that one because the shape doesn’t allow for quick and easy slide into a bag and even if it made it to thief’s bag, the 3-dimensional proportions of a camera could give it out. That’s clearly why the thief opted for laptop theft. Unfortunately, even though laptop is less expensive than a DSLR camera, its overall value goes way beyond that of a camera, simply because of valuable, irreplaceable and personally identifiable data on it. Again, unlike with other electronic devices, laptop theft prevention is more important you could comprehend.

Every laptop owner should take laptop theft prevention very seriously. Learn from my mistake and don’t become the next victim of laptop theft. You are never suspicious enough when it comes to laptops and if your laptop is not in your reach or in your sight, know that it can be easily stolen. Dishonest people are always on a lookout for easy targets to steal and as you can see from my case – people won’t hesitate to steal from you even as you are helping them. Don’t be too trusting and never assume people are friendly with you because they like you. It is not until you pay for not being suspicious enough by seeing your valuable property stolen when you realize that bad people are everywhere, including at places where you least expect it. Laptop theft is a devastating experience and goes way beyond lost monetary value. Prevention is your best option. More than 97% of all stolen laptops are never recovered so prevention is virtually all you have. Laptop is more valuable than you care to realize. Don’t be the next victim of laptop theft. Take any and all necessary measures to prevent it. Take laptop theft p[prevention as the only way to avoid going through the same hell I am going through.

Good Bye San Pedro de Macoris

This was it. I was leaving the Dominican Republic the following day and only had a few more hours for San Pedro de Macoris. I had to drive overnight to Punta Cana to get there in time for return of my rental car and check in for the flight. The die was cast – I did what I could to recover my laptop but it didn’t work out. Yet. I however knew that I was leaving with one strong contact in San Pedro de Macoris on whom I could rely. Domingo became my good friend and I feel truly grateful for all the help he provided me with. My time in the Dominican Republic was up and I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. Getting my laptop stolen by a person I was helping was a terrible experience that will put the country on my personal black list.

Before saying my final Good Bye to San Pedro de Macoris, I wanted to have one more beer with Domingo and hoped lovely Keira would be there to join us. We drove down to San Pedro’s Malecon and yes, Keira was there. She looked stunning and was happy to see us as much as we were to see her. She’s an amazing companion who made my time spent at the beer there very enjoyable. It gave her sads when I mentioned that I was leaving San Pedro de Macoris to catch the plane in Punta Cana the following day. It meant that this was the last time we are seeing each other to which she reacted in such genuine and sweet way it made me feel warm after all the disappointment in the Dominican Republic so far.

I made two wonderful friends in San Pedro – Domingo and Keira even though Domingo later corrected me to make it three, because his wife considered it a pleasure to have met me and enjoyed the time with me. To her, all Domingo’s friends are also friends of hers and are welcome anytime to their house. I tried to look at the bright side of life and told myself that all of the laptops of the world are temporary, but true friendships are forever. Keira insisted that I come to the Dominican Republic again. She promised that this time around it will be her who catches a ride with me and she’s no thief. She enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed hers and was shocked I was leaving because it meant she was not gonna get a chance to spend more time with me. She thought I was gonna be here for at least a few more days but the reason I was not too social during my stay was that I felt down all the time after my laptop got stolen.

Keira was a sweetheart from start to end. Domingo was an amazing support from start to end. So much headache caused by laptop theft but if it wasn’t for this stolen laptop, I would have never met these two wonderful people. I was torn between my feeling of hatred towards the country that put me through the biggest stress of my life and love for it because of wonderful people who showed so much support and offered so much unconditional help. There are good people in every walk of life and one must strive to not ignore them. This is something I’ve always been aware of but my mind was clouded by ruthless crime committed against me.

My last moments in San Pedro de Macoris were truly enjoyable. Keira has a little sister who despite her young age (she’s 8 year old) could speak great English. I had one last pack of chewing gums on me because I gave all the rest to Domingo’s children when we went to visit them at the place of his former wife so I gave it to Keira’s little sister who rewarded me with the sweetest “Thank You” I have ever heard. San Pedro de Macoris is not a tourist trap. The town is on the coast, but it doesn’t have the beach or anything otherwise attractive to tourists so locals don’t see many foreigners there. As such these people are more genuine and unlike Dominicans from popular tourist areas, they are not used to getting free gifts in exchange for looking cute. When I gave little Shakira (Keira’s sister’s name) chewing gums, it was the most genuine child’s appreciation I have ever seen. So definitely worth it.

Alas, I had to bid my friends good bye. Domingo was a little concerned about me driving over night all the way to Punta Cana but I explained that I actually preferred to drive at night because traffic is less crazy and I needed to get there early anyway so I have time buffer in case something goes wrong. Leaving my great new friends was not easy, but I really needed to go back home to Canada as I had a lot of stuff to take care of now that my laptop was gone. I said my final good byes to San Pedro de Macoris, sat in a car and drove off into the night.

Getting on the Dominican Radio Stations

The rumor of a Canadian guy who was robbed spread across San Pedro de Macoris quickly. My story was published in local newspaper and featured on national TV. Domingo lined up three live interviews during prime time hours with three of San Pedro’s top radio stations. I can’t speak any Spanish, but with Domingo by my side I had nothing to worry about. It was weird, but through my misfortune with stolen laptop I ended up getting an opportunity to be on the Dominican Radio.

It was a weekday which meant Domingo had to go to the college in the morning where he works as a teacher. He said he was gonna ask the principal whether he’d release him so he can assist me with interviews on the radio. He was gonna explain to him what exactly is happening with me and why it is important that he goes to the radio stations with me. Unfortunately the college was short staffed for the week so he was only released for one and a half hour. This was enough to get us on two live shows with two different radio stations.

First we went to Jumbo shopping mall in San Pedro where on the second floor is the studio of Radio FM 103 (if I’m not mistaken about the name) and after that we headed to another one the name of which I can’t recall but it’s presumably hosted by the most popular radio host in San Pedro. The guy also took a picture of me and was gonna post it along with my story on his website which is frequented by young locals. He also said he was gonna keep making an announcement that I am offering a $1,000 reward for return of my laptop for a week, three times a day as he host three different live shows each day.

I’ve done my best to give my story exposure in town in hopes that it will reach either the ears of the girl who stole my laptop or a person she may have sold it to. One way or another, I knew she was not gonna get a grand for it if she were to sell it so my offer was more than generous. There was material on that laptop that’s of great value to me so I was able to give financial reward for safe return of it back to my hands – no questions asked.

This was my last full day in the Dominican Republic. I spent my 7 day long vacation trying to recover my stolen laptop. I knew I did all I could and even though I didn’t manage to get my laptop back, the message was out there so I could leave the Dominican Republic with some hope that I may see my laptop one day. Statistically, more than 97% of all stolen laptops are never recovered. Chances of me having luck with it were extremely slim. I’ve tried my best, I’ve sacrificed my vacation to chase for its recovery. I hope it was not all in vain and karma will bring it back to me by some means.