So, today, I was sitting in the cafeteria of my college with my girlfriend and a guy we knew from school. As we were sitting there, a girl that looked to be about 19 kept getting up and leaving the area. She would go in another room for about 5-10 minutes and come back in. When she would come back in, she would click on her laptop a little bit then walk away.
She would walk away WITHOUT her laptop. So us three were discussing how “if we weren’t better people, we’d have a laptop”. I wanted to say something to the girl but I figured I would leave a better impression on her. When the walked out the last time, I calmly walked up to her laptop, closed it up, and hid it underneath her coat. We immediately picked up our things and went to class.
As we were walking though, my girlfriend started making remarks about what I had done was “stupid” and “pointless”. Well, I’m pretty pissed about this. I think I did the right thing in hiding her laptop from her. Instead of merely saying “Hey, peopel steal this stuff. Don’t leave it,” I let her experience pure fright. I let her feel what it would have been like if it really was stolen, if even for a single moment. I think that this will, in the long run, correct her irresponsible habit before something real happens to her laptop.
So I gotta ask, did I do the right thing? Was I right in trying to fix her with fright? Should I, as my girlfriend suggested, just let it be and let her learn for herself?
I’d have gone a litle further. I’d have opened up notepad, and typed a little message that said “It’s really stupid to leave your laptop unguarded. See? No one even asked me anything while I typed this whole long message. And nobody’s going to stop me when I close it up and hide it, either.”
You did fine. Here at work, if we even find somebody’s desktop unlocked, the SOP is to send everybody in the group an email saying, “Hey, doughnuts are on me tomorrow!”
I read the campus police blotter in the newspaper, I don’t leave ANY of my stuff unguarded. Even at a school full of seemingly nice people, there are a lot of thieves. And I sure can’t afford to replace anything that gets stolen.
Meh, I thought of doing similar things when I was in college.
I had a great time reading the Crime Log (yes, it was actually called that!) in my school’s paper. About 90% of the crimes were “student leaves expensive object unattended for x amount of hours. Surprise! Object was stolen”.
The funniest ones were when people would literally leave their bags, laptops, books (expensive textbooks) and such unattended for literally hours.
You were very nice to hide her laptop under her coat. Hopefully it was enough to keep the thing from growing legs and hopping into someone else’s backpack, and enough to scare some sense into her.
Want to guess what I do with things like that? I take them. They are delivered to the person’s manager, who generally will have some uncomfortable questions for the user.
My mother did it to me when I was a kid, except it was a bike, and I’d left it unlocked against a telephone pole while I went and walked out onto the frozen bit of the lake to frolic. Scared the snow pants off me it did, and once I’d discovered she’d just relocated it up the street, locking it to another telephone pole out of sight, I learned my lesson well.
These days I don’t leave anything unguarded 'cos I know it won’t stay there for long. Some people just need to be a little shaken up lest the lesson you’re trying to teach them be learned the hard way.
Could be worse…
Better you putting it under her coat, than someone else putting it under **their ** coat.
<snerk!>
You were the first person I thought of when I saw the OP…
Hey, give the girl a break. Maybe she was a psychology student, whose assignment was to watch how people reacted to an unattended laptop. (Ok, maybe not) 
Or, she was a spoiled rich girl, and she wanted a new laptop.
You did the right thing, IMO.
Presume much? What on earth made you think that you have the right to teach a perfect stranger “a lesson”? It was none of your business.
Oh, you bet. Last place I worked, the SOP was to compose an email to the boss saying “I obviously don’t understand the basics of computer security and should not be employed here. Please process my resignation immediately.” And then not send it.
I’d rather buy doughnuts.
At my school, you can leave whatever you want (except food) anywhere and nobody will touch it. Unless the dumbass administration decides that leaving your stuff around still counts as littering; then you’re going to have a field day getting it back from them.
How kind.
If that is sarcastic, then it is dry. But since I don’t feel it is, I guess I’ll address it. I think it is my business as a fellow person. I don’t wanna see other people’s stuff stolen from them based soley on their ignorance. I know that if it were me and I wasn’t making the right decisions, I would want someone to bring it to my attention and quickly.
My comments were completely sincere. It is not your place to teach someone the error of their ways. Your actions were incredibly presumptuous. If you were truly concerned about someone’s possessions being stolen from them because of their ignorance, you would have spoken to the girl. Instead you played a trick on her as though you were a parent and she was a child. Who in the hell do you think you are to do such a thing? I’m stunned at your sense of superiority and entitlement. The entire situation was none of your damn business and you were a jerk for doing what you did.
I have to admit that I would have wanted to get the same point across to her, but in a nicer way.
What’s wrong with saying to her, after she came back the first time, “You know, walking away and leaving your computer unattended like that is just begging to get it stolen; can you really afford a new one?” What’s wrong with at least trying that? Then, if she does it again, doing what you did makes more sense.
But I, too, thought of Hal Briston for some strange reason…
I’m totally with lisacurl. I was reading through the thread wondering how long it would be until someone talked some sense.
It’s just none of your friggin’ business what she’s doing with her laptop. Much less your place to teach her a lesson. Ob-noxious. Has your girlfriend started looking at you like “what am I doing with this guy” yet?