Very regularly in the police blotter - we see reports about vehicles being broken into and laptop computers or other electronic items being stolen from inside.
It's unfortunate - but usually not enough to make the news - until it starts to become a trend….which is when we try to put the public on notice that - in case you didn't know - leaving a laptop computer in a car is really not such a good idea.
Alexander Evans knows all about that. Today he came to speak to us about the theft of his expensive laptop, which was stolen from his vehicle on Tuesday.
He told us that he is offering a reward for the safe return of the laptop, no questions asked:
Alexander Evans, Personal items stolen
"It was Tuesday night, I was at Belize Elementary coaching a volleyball game between 7:45-10:30pm and when I got back to the vehicle I noticed that the passenger side window was broken. The first thing I check was my backpack to see if my laptop was there. My laptop, external hard drive belonging to the National Institute of Cultural and History and a pair of headphones were missing."
Daniel Ortiz
"What is the value of these items?"
Alexander Evans
"The laptop is valued at about $4,000 dollars. The external is about $300 and the headphones are about $200. This business of cars being into and laptops being stolen - this isn't an isolated case. It happened to people that I know that I found out about after the fact and I'm sure that if you see something happening please say something, act on it because to the person doing the stealing - that might just mean a few extra dollars selling it but to the person that's its been stolen from its means so much more because of the amount of time and energy that they put into the contents on the laptop."
And just 2 hours after Evans spoke to us, He contacted us to say that he had recovered his laptop, but he had to pay a substantial amount of money to get it back.
Another victim, John Mencias, is offering a reward to anyone who can help him to recover his black and Silver Dell XPS laptop, which was stolen from his vehicle which was parked near the Biltmore Plaza Hotel sometime before 1:20 p.m. this afternoon.
It is the exact same MO as in Evans case where one of the windows was smashed and the laptop was taken out of the vehicle. Anyone who knows the whereabouts of this laptop can call Mencias at 624-9267.
