A young woman has been left devastated after her laptop was stolen, with the thieves leaving a cruel note behind.
“Sorry you should take security seriously. Blame the council and get a refund for your laptops,” the note read.
The thief ended the note with a seemingly sarcastic “sowwy” and a sad face.
Rachel, an after-school worker from Seaforth Community Center in north Sydney, described the note as “really vindictive”.
“It’s like ‘I’m going to steal your laptop and I’m going to rub it in your face that its gone,” she said.
She described herself as a “broke uni student” and is now faced with having to pay thousands of dollars to get a new computer and losing all her work just before her final year of studies.
“I’m broke, I’m a uni student, I’m still studying,” she said.
“I don’t have enough money to get a new one, I only got it a couple months ago and I literally haven’t even paid it off yet.
“I literally live off that, my whole life is on that laptop.”
She says the laptop was left in a locked office overnight and has no idea how the space that she believed was secure.
The police have taken the pen and paper used to write the note and will look at finding fingerprints if possible, however, the young woman says she won’t take the matter further if the thief returns the laptop after posting about it online.
“Especially if it’sa high school or primary school kid that’s just bored and breaking into s*** for the sake of it, I’m hoping that if a parent sees the post they’ll come home and see a laptop that’s not theirs and be like ‘I know where that’s from’,” she said.
“I don’t really care who has taken it I just need it back, even if they call me on a private number and arrange to drop it off at a certain time.”
Concerned community members responding to her post offered advice that she should get a new laptop through the council’s insurance, however as it was her personal laptop she has been told that it won’t apply.
She has also resisted urges to set up a GoFundMe or similar fundraising campaign to fund a new computer.
“I’ve always learned that if you want something you have to make it work for yourself,” she said.
“[Losing the laptop] it is not that big of a deal in comparison to people that are homeless or struggling.”
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