A friendly reminder

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

(Perhaps only pertinent to diesel_cafe, but I think it's of enough more general use to be worth posting here.)

Earlier this week I saw an altercation, fortunately with a peaceful ending, at the Diesel, the gist of which was: he was walking towards the front with her laptop and backpack; she stopped him and took it back; he said his girlfriend asked him to get her stuff from the table in the back and he'd thought this was it; she told him he was wrong.

Truth or lie, accident or theivery, I don't know or care, but I do want to remind people: watch your stuff. If someone had taken the stuff intentionally, and if the owner had happened to be in the bathroom at the time, the person could have easily left with no one the wiser. (Or if someone had simply taken the laptop and put it into their own bag, they could have walked right past the owner without her noticing.)

I firmly believe that Davis is a law-abiding and friendly place whose occupants would never steal; but accidents happen, and miscreants may come in from Harvard or Porter Squares, which are as everyone knows populated entirely by criminals who put iocane powder into people's coffee.

Anyway, just a reminder.

Comments

[prog.livejournal.com]

I actually don't understand people who leave their laptops behind for any length of time at all, like tucking them under an arm is just not an option. I mean, they can't all have dead batteries, right?

I guess there's a stigma against taking one's computer into the bathroom, still. At least when there's people to see, anyway.

Let's start a clever sticker campaign to increase awareness that the marriage of laptops with potties is a-ok with us.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

but with the wireless network, that means they might spend way too long in there. "hurry up!" "sorry, i was in the middle of this lj quiz..."

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

somehow, I don't think LJ quizzes are what they're going to be doing on a laptop in the bathroom.

After all, we all know what the internet is for....

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I think the question people are grappling with is: "Which is more valuable, the laptop, or a seat at a booth?" If the laptop is nicked, insurance might replace it, but if you don't appear to be occupying your booth while you're in the loo, it might be months before you get a seat again.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Aha, that is why you carry around some highly visible token you should leave to mark a place as yours. It should be both not mistakable as trash (not a newspaper or an empty bottle), but also not tempting to thieves. A book works well for this.