This story is in continuation with “A true incident”, please read that before going on to this….
All my doubts were still on the dishwasher maintenance guy and I kept on convincing the landlord but due to lack of concrete evidences I couldn’t really prove it. I also called Dell and told them about the incident and as the product was registered with them they agreed to inform me if they notice any activities on my account. At first I had little hope of getting my belongings back but with time and as months passed the unpleasant incident started fading off my mind. I was also upset because there was a lot of personal data on my laptop and losing that meant losing all my previous years’ works. I lived in that studio for few months before moving out of the city due to professional reasons.
It had almost been nine months since the burglary incident happened. Now, I was working someplace else away from family and friends but I had made some new friends and got adjusted to the new place. My sister lived in another city and I visited her often. One time when I visited her she handed me a small package from Dell. I thought it was a laptop battery as one of those battery replacements Schemes by Dell were going on at that time; I was surprised because I never ordered one myself. I un-wrapped the package and found a laptop hard drive. It wasn’t of any use for me as I didn't want to replace my hard drive as my current hard drive was working just fine and moreover I had a lot of data stored on it, which I didn’t want to switch. I thought of selling it on EBay.
At home, as I was going through the package I noticed something very strange, I saw an unfamiliar name and phone no., below my name and address on the packaging slip. At first I thought it must be a glitch but the phone no. appeared to be the area code of the place I previously stayed, I was stunned. I immediately started linking all the pieces and figured out that this could be the person who has my laptop. I also noticed the asset tag number which is unique for each laptop and this one matched with my old laptop no.
I was thrilled that this could be the person who stole my laptop and might have ordered the hard drive and since Dell had the laptop registered under my name they sent it to my address instead. I was also angry at dell as I had reported the theft to them still they were communicating without verifying any details with me, the real owner. At first, I thought of calling the person but was a little scared, after making a decision to report this to the police and let them investigate, I called the local police station and provided them with all the details, to my surprise they claimed that they can’t take any actions or help me in this matter even though I have all the evidences. I was dumbstruck as if lightening has crossed over me, I thought police was here to protect you and help you out. I then called the detective agency but according to them the report had been archived and my case was closed as this was just a small theft. I was helpless, a little ray of hope I had of getting my precious laptop back was being darkened by the eclipses of immoral and unjust behaviors of the law authorities.
This is when I decided to take matters into my own hands even if it meant going against the law. Although I was a scared and didn’t know how to proceed, I decided to call the phone no. on the packaging slip. As the phone was ringing my mind was clouded with numerous negative thoughts, I thought that I might be dealing with a gang or mafia or a criminal as I had never ever communicated with any such people before. A boy answered my call. I asked him if I can talk to the person whose name was listed on the package. The boy told me that it was his mom and that she was at work at that moment. I then asked him if they own a dell laptop and whether they had ordered a hard drive replacement from dell. He thought that I was someone inquiring from Dell and answered all my questions. As soon as I got confirmed that they have my laptop, I told him that I am the original owner of the laptop they had stolen from my apartment. I threatened him that I will report this to the police if they didn’t return it back to me. The boy got scared and told me that he is just a high school kid and don’t do such things and his mom didn’t steal it, she bought the laptop from someone, he sounded very innocent but I was on fire and had no mercy for the kid or for his mother. I then told him that I will call up later to speak to his mom.
I called up later that night, this time the lady herself picked up the phone. I got her aware of the whole situation and told her that she has my laptop and if they don’t return it, they would go to jail, even though i knew that the police already refused to help me in this matter. She appealed that she didn’t steal the laptop instead she bought it for $250 from someone on the street. I told her to return my laptop as early as possible; otherwise she would be behind bars. She started pleading, for mercy, explaining that she has a family and a respectable job and that I should not report her to the police. She said that she will mail the laptop back to me in a package. First I agreed to it but then I thought she might break it and send it to me and blame the postal service for the damage. I immediately analyzed the situation and instructed her to deliver the laptop in-person. She herself got terrified by this and started insisting repeatedly to not to inform the police or get any cops along with me. We decided to meet at a crowded public place in the city. The time was fixed at around nine in the morning. I couldn't sleep the night before, may be because of the anticipation to get my laptop or fear or agony she might cause to me.
At 7 am I got a call from that lady, I was still in bed. I thought she might be cancelling the plans or maybe refusing to give back my laptop. Instead she had called to confirm the place and asked me again to not to get any cops I assured her that if she returned my laptop I will not take any actions. I got ready and went on to get my prized possession, almost nine months after it was taken away from me. I myself couldn’t believe that this was happening. Lot of mixed thoughts were going on in my mind I was scared, excited, angry and delighted all at the same time.
She called me again sharp at nine to let me know that she has reached the designated place. By now it was confirmed that she was more scared then me and she wanted to get done with this burden too. There was a lot of traffic and an hour fifteen minutes journey took me almost two hours, on my way i had a fear that she might have left the place as I was late by an hour. Finally I reached the spot, the only identification she gave me was that she will be standing near the subway gate and wearing a green outfit. I didn’t provide her with any identifications of mine and she didn’t ask for any.
As I was walking I saw an African American lady with green scrubs holding a small bag on her thin shoulders, she looked short and timid. She was nothing like the image of a person a thief would have. Well I approached her cautiously and pronounced her name very politely; I was not scared anymore and sounded confident. She hesitated a bit and responded shyly handing me the laptop, I grabbed it quickly without even looking if it was the right one or opening to see if it still works. I again asked how she got the laptop. She told me that she bought the laptop from someone on the street and that she paid for it in cash. I was surprised to hear that and thought she was making up stories to cover up for the thief maybe a gang, she didn’t seem like a affluent person carrying $200 in cash and paying for it on the road without even finding out if the laptop ever worked. She was wearing a scrub, so inquisitively I asked her where she worked she said that she is an assistant nurse in a hospital. We then parted our own ways. I just ran off from the scene to the nearest shop.
I immediately went to a café to check if it was working, everything was intact accept all my old data had been deleted, well I was content that at least I had my laptop on me. I came home all happy and triumphed as if I had won a long lost battle.
I have been fortunate throughout in a lot of situations where I have lost possessions and have got them back as twice I got my lost cell phone back, once I lost my wallet full of credit cards and cash and I got it after almost three weeks, with everything intact but that’s another story.
The person who stole my laptop is still a mystery, maybe the burglar was known to her and she was trying to cover up for him. She had no idea about my microwave oven. I still wonder why police refused bluntly to help me. I had already filed a report for my stolen laptop with Dell, they actually encourage you to call if you loose any items as with asset tags its easy to locate the laptops but she was communicating with Dell constantly. When the detective had the hand prints and the name and telephone no. he could have easily done a investigation and catch the real culprit, but I guess they were lazy. This is the best Law and order department and the most reputed brand of the world. I still can't figure these out.
The chances of getting back my laptop were almost one in a million, and I still think this was an impossible situation, rather a miracle. I will call it destiny or luck or may be a desire of hope. This incident made me realize that one should never give up and always keep trying. This also taught me to deal with a tough situation. It has been three years since this incident took place but being my real true story, it is still fresh in my THOUGHTS and whenever I think of this incident I always believe that “When you really want something the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it”
