Anybody know where to buy or sell a stolen/found laptop? Do you know anyone who does?‏

Bad news from Tony this morning:

I’ve been lying low busy with work and other stuff for far too long. but I hope you are proud to know that you are the first people I thought of when I was considering how I might contact the crinimal element in Seattle. You are people who know people. Be proud. :-T

I left my backpack on a bus last night and it contained a bunch of unimportant and replaceable odds and sods that I am willing to let go of. It also contained a laptop which I am also willing to let go of and replace with something newer. Unfortunately the last time I backed up the photos and saved data and IM logs and such onto my external drive at home was a few months ago and so it contains 4-10GB of photos and video of my recent life and that is irreplaceable.

I tried the bus lost and found and (no surprise) no one turned in my backpack last night. I will be trying another few lost and found searches and emails, but I expect them all to fail. A found backpack on a bus driving through downtown is not likely to be ignored or altruistically turned in.

I would like to find my specific laptop amongst the volume of “found goods” in Seattle, specifically if it has not been wiped yet and I can get the data off of it. I would be willing to pay any reasonable (and almost any unreasonable) price and would be uninterested in punishing or being mean or being anything but incredibly thankful to any person who might have been trying to to profit from my stupidity. I don’t even care about the hardware, only the data.

There is no way this is going to work. No way that one of you can point me to “Jimmy the fence” or “Mikey the Hand who works the 545 bus route” like they do in the movies. None of you are going to be able to “put your ear to the ground” and “talk to your contacts” and find some specific laptop in the “cold, big, dark city” of Seattle. Life is not like a movie.

That said, if any of you think you might be able to pull of some kind of miraculous feat like this or know people who could then feel free to contact me with any tips you have. Otherwise you can just alternately pity me or mock my stupidity, your choice. :-T

tonyja blip microsoft bloop com

Thanks,
Tony

Time and place details:
I left work and got on the 545 sound transit bus at Overlake transit center in Redmond at 9:09PM last night and traveled toward downtown. At Stewart and Denny I got up and got off the bus without picking up my backpack, leaving it at the very back of the bus (on the right hand side while sitting looking forward). I expect my backpack traveled another stop or two until someone found it unattended, discovered that it contained some useless junk and also an HP Pavillion 17″ widescreen monitor black laptop (and maybe a little green 8GB iPod). the person who found it is either trying to find me know (hope hope) or trying to turn a reasonable profit off of my laptop and iPod (which I don’t really begrudge them for if they are, economic downturn and all). I expect there are some paper print outs or mail envelopes or other identifying items in there that could reveal my name and/or address and/or Microsoft email address.

We’ll be scouring Craigslist for the next two weeks and posting this letter anywhere we can think of. Please pass it on!