21 August 2009

Laptop & PSP stolen from TCH Ward

| reemy
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A heartless thief has stolen an Acer laptop computer, a PSP (which was on loan) and 2 games (Atari and Rome) from a room in a ward of The Canberra Hospital yesterday. My 2 and half year old nephew has been in this ward for over 2 weeks dealing with complications arising from a debilitating chronic illness and has been a very sick little boy. His parents have been keeping a bedside vigil this whole time and both are understandably exhausted both physically and mentally.

Yesterday afternoon they took their son for a walk in a wheelchair just to give him a change of scene and when they returned they discovered the laptop, PSP and games missing.

The most devastating part is that they have lost photos that were on the computer. The laptop is replaceable, the photos are not. At this stage they would happy to just have the photos returned. If the thieves have any heart at all they could burn the photos to disc and then anonymously drop them or even post them to the ward.

This is a cruel and heartless act – I mean, who steals from people who’re obviously dealing with a seriously ill child??

Any information would be much appreciated.

You can contact Janine directly on 0408 286 926.

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niceplacetolive3:49 pm 25 Aug 09

We had a similar occurrence when our daughter was in hospital two years ago. She was very unwell and could only listen to music. Someone stole her MP3 player. When we replaced it, it was stolen again.

I should add that a plasma television was stolen from the ronald macdonald room during this time as well.

I can understand the parents not wanting to leave the bedside of the children – THEY ARE NOT SAFE IN THERE as this proves that anyone can come and go!
Security of the Children/adolescent ward requires urgent attention

janine d said :

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Jeff. This amazing person who we have never met, has generously replaced the PSP including three games. We’d like you to know how much your kindness has helped lift our spirits. THANK YOU!!! Janine and family.

This is the quote that needs to be highlighted and spoken about! We can always go back to bitching about ‘druggies,security etc’ at a later date

Nice work “Jeff” – seriously 🙂

Hopefully somehow these photo’s will be returned.

Jamie Wheeler12:14 am 22 Aug 09

toriness said :

peterh said :

I don’t think that telling someone to keep a copy after the notebook is stolen is really worthwhile. Perhaps if we focused our efforts in monitoring ebay and similar sites for a notebook matching the description after one is obtained, would be of greater benefit.

It is nice to say you should have done this or that, but it is too late in this case.

damned good advice generally speaking though isn’t it.

i know there is the old adage ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’, but if you leave your stuff lying around in a public place, don’t be surprised when they get nicked. crims are crims and have little or no conscience – they don’t give a rats that your child is sick no more than they give a rats about breaking my window and coming into my private home and stealing MY laptop.

Too true. If it was a druggo on heroin the whole nature of the drug is you don’t give a rats about anything but your next hit. A junkie on heroin could watch a family mowed down by a truck and not feel a single thing. A sick kid to a junkie is just an easy target for some quick business. As I’ve found out myself the hard way thieves can strike anywhere at anytime, so best not trust anybody anywhere.

Mike Crowther8:24 pm 21 Aug 09

My own child has just been discharged from that unit housebound. There was no access checking during normal operating hours I walked in with a slow nod to the desk. (and Im a pretty dodgy looking character) And anyway, why should medical staff also perform security functions? They’re busy enough as it is.

20 years ago I was employed in Hospital security. Female patients were indecently assaulted by scummies just wandering in with a ‘scope slung around their neck…..nurses bags were stolen from their desk….equipment was stolen then dumped cause the crim couldn’t figure out what it was (let alone where to fence it)…triage staff were routinely punched. It was a jungle back then, I’d hate to think what it’s like now. I left after being ridiculed as an alarmist ratbag for recommending a tightening of access to the Nic (neo natal intensive care unit). Three years later a new born infant was stolen by a nutter.
Sort of pales the eletro-game thing by comparison. I think Australians just don’t like the idea that security in necessary.

Weaselburger8:07 pm 21 Aug 09

yeah unfortunatly many CCTV cameras can’t be used as evidence due to the contrast on detail and angeling etc.

but still the best option in my opinion would be to wave a wand over some chicken bones and put a voodoo curse over the barstard’s souls so they all rot painfully in hell.

good luck with the hunt

CCTV security video is probably the best bet. I echo all the angry and discusted sentiments of the other members. Then there are folk like jeff. what a nice person.

I’m really sorry to hear about that Reemy, there are all sorts of scumbags in the world.

Should you recover the laptop or purchase another one I highly recommend you install some phone-home software.
see for example:
http://preyproject.com/#download
http://www.securitykit.com/pc_phonehome.htm

There are heaps of different types, some free, some requiring an annual subscription. If you have any friends who know about computers ask them to help you out.

Whilst they won’t protect you if the thief is smart and reformats the harddrive and starts from scratch. The reality is that there are an awful lot of dumb crooks out there who will be caught by this sort of software.

My other suggestion – especially on a laptop would be to install a program such as folder lock or similar:
http://www.newsoftwares.net/folderlock/

which prevents pretty much anyone except a really smart crook with lots of time on their hands from seeing whats on your machine. Don’t rely on the rubbish password protection that comes with Windows or Apple computers.

Anyway I hope the laptop is recovered could you give some more details about it – ie model number, colour etc so that if one of us comes across somehting we can more readily identify it.

eyeLikeCarrots3:37 pm 21 Aug 09

Overheard said :

To quote my sister-in-law, karma will get this person. They’ll come back in the next life as a centipede. With a limp.

lol.. thats a whole lot of limp

Really saddening to hear, Reemy.

I’d echo the sentiments above about contacting pawn shops and maybe even keeping an eye out on places like the Tuesday free classifieds, craigslist, Trading Post.

To quote my sister-in-law, karma will get this person. They’ll come back in the next life as a centipede. With a limp.

peterh said :

I don’t think that telling someone to keep a copy after the notebook is stolen is really worthwhile. Perhaps if we focused our efforts in monitoring ebay and similar sites for a notebook matching the description after one is obtained, would be of greater benefit.

It is nice to say you should have done this or that, but it is too late in this case.

damned good advice generally speaking though isn’t it.

i know there is the old adage ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’, but if you leave your stuff lying around in a public place, don’t be surprised when they get nicked. crims are crims and have little or no conscience – they don’t give a rats that your child is sick no more than they give a rats about breaking my window and coming into my private home and stealing MY laptop.

Alas, some things never change. My son had a collectors edition Jimmy Barnes tape stolen while he was battling cancer in TCH 17 years ago. And DVD’s on the cancer ward at Sydney Children’s Hospital used to walk all the time. We were convinced that it was either visitors to the ward, or some of the patients themselves. Unfortunately as a society we will never get rid of the rogue, dishonest element. Sad.

Jamie Wheeler said :

Stealing from a sick child is truly the work of low life piece of human garbage.

Also with precious photos, NEVER keep the only copy of them on a single computer. Even without thieves you’ve got viruses, hard disk failures, power surges, fires etc etc to worry about. Just get a decent portable HDD and do backups regularly, or burn to DVD and keep them offsite in a safe location.

I don’t think that telling someone to keep a copy after the notebook is stolen is really worthwhile. Perhaps if we focused our efforts in monitoring ebay and similar sites for a notebook matching the description after one is obtained, would be of greater benefit.

It is nice to say you should have done this or that, but it is too late in this case.

Janine D, I hope that the person who did this gets caught, or if they are visiting another sick child in the ward, the family finds out and puts the pressure on them to return it.

Now, if only The Canberra Hospital would follow Westmead’s lead and sign up to Child’s Play, complete strangers would throw sufficient money at them specifically for the purposes of putting entertainment in paediatrics wards that patients at TCH don’t have to bring their own.
(And kids who ordinarily don’t have game systems of their own or at home can play at get distracted from their sickness for a while)

Recipient testimonials here, follow the top of page links for more information

janine d said :

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Jeff. This amazing person who we have never met, has generously replaced the PSP including three games. We’d like you to know how much your kindness has helped lift our spirits. THANK YOU!!! Janine and family.

Canberra does have some beautiful people in it!

GardeningGirl12:08 am 21 Aug 09

What a reprehensible act 🙁 I hope the photos are returned.

Jamie Wheeler11:13 pm 20 Aug 09

Stealing from a sick child is truly the work of low life piece of human garbage.

Also with precious photos, NEVER keep the only copy of them on a single computer. Even without thieves you’ve got viruses, hard disk failures, power surges, fires etc etc to worry about. Just get a decent portable HDD and do backups regularly, or burn to DVD and keep them offsite in a safe location.

They have to be able to be aware of all visitors in case DVOs etc.
So do people have to sign in? Because that would give you a list of people who were there, you know the rough time of the crime, and with a bit of luck they have CCTV footage of the area.

Might be worth talking to Hospital security and see if they can help you.

Probably the same scum who walked out with the lcd tv from the hospital a couple of years back. People like this should be dealt with with a single bullet to the head.

Paediatrics is not ridiculously open. They have to be able to be aware of all visitors in case DVOs etc. (been there when that’s happened – not pretty). The chances are that the culprit was visiting another patient and saw the opportunity. That said, the nurses can’t watch over everything all the time -and they do say to lock up your valuables. It’s appalling, regardless.

I think this is atrocious

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Jeff. This amazing person who we have never met, has generously replaced the PSP including three games. We’d like you to know how much your kindness has helped lift our spirits. THANK YOU!!! Janine and family.

Sorry to hear about your family becoming a victim to a petty crime.

Unfortunately, this was probably very deliberate, that the thief knew that it would be an easy picking.

Hospitals are a public place. It is open to the public to allow family, friends, colleagues, and anyone to visit their loved ones. This means that it is also open to thieves who will take advantage of that. I’d wager that the thief was there in the hospital only to steal, and not to see someone s/he knew in the wards.

As I said, it’s easy picking for those who lack human decency, and hospitals will probably have to introduce some security measures to counter such crime if they become more prevalent. I remember that some wards provide lockers for patients to securely store away there belongings. Was this available?

I think the moral in the general population is in decline, and unfortunately we have to be more vigilant to avoid becoming prey to such crime.

I pray that you, at the least, get your photos back.

Wow, just when you think humanity can’t get any worse. My advice is to contact places where these things can be easily sold such as Revolution CD in Woden, Cash Converters etc. They’re really good at keeping an eye out for stuff like this. Karma will get them in the long run too…

eyeLikeCarrots6:40 pm 20 Aug 09

PSP replaced

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