shack
08-23-2006, 02:08 AM
If so...You would have to go a long way to beat my daughter.
Here's the story. Classes at UT (University of Tennessee) start tomorrow. My oldest had to work tonight from 5:00 PM to 10:30 PM at a local restaurant. She needed to download some stuff from the university network so she took her laptop with her intending to go by after she got off from work. Like an idiot, she stuck it under the passenger side seat in her car. After work (ends up working till 11:00 PM) she decides she is too tired and comes home. As soon as she gets home she comes in flying through the house say here computer is missing. She went to get it out from under the seat and it was not there. :( We figure she:
A) overlooked it in the car
B) put it in the trunk instead of under the seat
C) took it out at work and forgot it
D) never got to the car with it in the first place and it was in the house somewhere.
(Our money was on D)
After a thorough search of the house and car and with a firm assurance that she did not take it out of the car one she got to work we determined that it must have been stolen. She did not notice anything amiss in the car (of course with all the clothes, makeup, books, magazines, etc...who could tell) and was sure the car was locked. As we were going through the insurance papers to see if it was covered under the homeowners or auto policy and trying to decide when to call the police to report the theft, she jumps up, gets in her car and takes off. I call her on her cell and she says she is going back to the restaurant (15 miles away) to see if anyone saw anything. We get a call pretty quickly and she's yelling on the other end...I FOUND IT..OH MY GOD I FOUND IT! As she was driving down to the restaurant, which is off the main road and close to the Tennessee River, she saw something shiny under some trees. This was about 100 yards or so away from where she parked. She stopped and looked....It was her laptop. Damp from the dew, some ants running through it and some new scratches....but it worked and was not noticeably damaged.
Now this is not just any student $1,000 PC. This is a powerful laptop with lots of graphic stuff and tons of expensive software. She is a architecture/interior design student and last year the laptop cost $3,000 before software. One of her professors had given her the full-blown version of Autocad, we had just loaded in the newest top end photoshop and put in another gig of ram. We figure to replace it and all the software would be close to $8,000 (Autocad if purchased new is about $4,000).
As I said she is one lucky girl. Even if it was covered under insurance (and we are not sure it is - but that will be taken care of tomorrow), it would be a pain, costly (deductable) and time consuming to get it straightend out. She has no idea what posessed her to get up and go back to the restaurant. If she had asked me if she should go I would have told her that there was NO WAY that computer would be around and it would be a waste of time. I'm glad she didn't ask. She just happend to look to the spot where it was lying. It must have been taken by someone who paniced and dropped it, was too stoned/drunk to figure out what to do with it or someone that couldn't get past the passwords to sign on and figured it wasn't worth it. When she got back to the house she had a death grip on the computer and smile that went from ear to ear. In any case, the odds of her finding that laptop, under these circumstances were pretty slim. She's a good kid, stays out of trouble, makes good grades...maybe...just maybe...her guardian angel is taking care of her...If you believe that sort of thing. I do ;)
Here's the story. Classes at UT (University of Tennessee) start tomorrow. My oldest had to work tonight from 5:00 PM to 10:30 PM at a local restaurant. She needed to download some stuff from the university network so she took her laptop with her intending to go by after she got off from work. Like an idiot, she stuck it under the passenger side seat in her car. After work (ends up working till 11:00 PM) she decides she is too tired and comes home. As soon as she gets home she comes in flying through the house say here computer is missing. She went to get it out from under the seat and it was not there. :( We figure she:
A) overlooked it in the car
B) put it in the trunk instead of under the seat
C) took it out at work and forgot it
D) never got to the car with it in the first place and it was in the house somewhere.
(Our money was on D)
After a thorough search of the house and car and with a firm assurance that she did not take it out of the car one she got to work we determined that it must have been stolen. She did not notice anything amiss in the car (of course with all the clothes, makeup, books, magazines, etc...who could tell) and was sure the car was locked. As we were going through the insurance papers to see if it was covered under the homeowners or auto policy and trying to decide when to call the police to report the theft, she jumps up, gets in her car and takes off. I call her on her cell and she says she is going back to the restaurant (15 miles away) to see if anyone saw anything. We get a call pretty quickly and she's yelling on the other end...I FOUND IT..OH MY GOD I FOUND IT! As she was driving down to the restaurant, which is off the main road and close to the Tennessee River, she saw something shiny under some trees. This was about 100 yards or so away from where she parked. She stopped and looked....It was her laptop. Damp from the dew, some ants running through it and some new scratches....but it worked and was not noticeably damaged.
Now this is not just any student $1,000 PC. This is a powerful laptop with lots of graphic stuff and tons of expensive software. She is a architecture/interior design student and last year the laptop cost $3,000 before software. One of her professors had given her the full-blown version of Autocad, we had just loaded in the newest top end photoshop and put in another gig of ram. We figure to replace it and all the software would be close to $8,000 (Autocad if purchased new is about $4,000).
As I said she is one lucky girl. Even if it was covered under insurance (and we are not sure it is - but that will be taken care of tomorrow), it would be a pain, costly (deductable) and time consuming to get it straightend out. She has no idea what posessed her to get up and go back to the restaurant. If she had asked me if she should go I would have told her that there was NO WAY that computer would be around and it would be a waste of time. I'm glad she didn't ask. She just happend to look to the spot where it was lying. It must have been taken by someone who paniced and dropped it, was too stoned/drunk to figure out what to do with it or someone that couldn't get past the passwords to sign on and figured it wasn't worth it. When she got back to the house she had a death grip on the computer and smile that went from ear to ear. In any case, the odds of her finding that laptop, under these circumstances were pretty slim. She's a good kid, stays out of trouble, makes good grades...maybe...just maybe...her guardian angel is taking care of her...If you believe that sort of thing. I do ;)