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    Thief forced to pay nearly $10K for stolen laptop data

    During April 2008, Michael J. Birkeland decided it would be a brilliant idea to steal a laptop computer from a Utah Valley University classroom. The laptop belonged to Perry Stewart, an art professor at UVU. Stewart primarily used the laptop for lectures, thus his coursework and presentations were stored on the computer. Two days later, the computer was recovered from Birkeland, but all of Stewart’s files had been erased. Birkeland admitted to the crime and pleaded no contest to theft, a class A misdemeanor.

    Stewart attempted to recover the deleted data and was able to regain access to over 27,000 files by using a recovery service. The recovered files were usable, but required approximately 350 hours to organize and rename the files. In addition, Stewart was forced to recreate over 100 PowerPoint presentations for lectures that were unable to be recovered. The state estimated that each presentation required six hours to create and totaled out Stewart’s entire recovery time at 950 hours.

    Based on Stewart’s recovery time, the state argued that Birkeland should provide financial restitution in the amount of $47,500 ($50 an hour for time spent recovering files). Birkeland opposed the ruling on the grounds that the misdemeanor charge had a limit of $1000 in damages and Stewart would be getting paid anyway due to the salary structure of the position. After listening to both arguments, the district court ruled against Birkeland’s misdemeanor claim, but adjusted financial restitution to the amount of time spent beyond the salaried position at the university. Birkeland was ordered to pay for 25 percent of the 950 hours at a rate of $41 an hour, a total of $9,758.

    Birkeland appealed the ruling, but judges Carolyn McHugh and Stephen Roth found Birkeland’s admission of guilt more than enough justification to uphold the financial award. They also believed that deletion of the files was intended to allow Birkeland to sell the laptop quickly on a third party service like Craigslist or eBay.

     

    17 comments

    • Minos  •  10 mths ago
      So if Windows had crashed and wiped his HD clean, would he have sued Microsoft? (The question is of course rhetorical given the MS EULA, but goes to show that if you're naive enough not to ever back up your data, you may not always have someone to sue for compensation, ASSUMING that a figure can be put on everything (like those family photos you'll never get back no matter how much you're paid...))
      • Minos 10 mths ago
        Oh I'm sorry, he's an art professor... must be using MacOS, sory if I offended anyone by saying "Windows"...

        WINDOWS!!!!
      • Minos 10 mths ago
        What??? The Mac doesn't automagically do backup for you? Doesn't it "just work"? Geeez... What are the failure rates on those solid-state devices they sell with nowadays anyway?
    • shinakaidah  •  10 mths ago
      good.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  10 mths ago
      Nice to see that for once a criminal has to pay!
    • CHARLES  •  10 mths ago
      I must be really bored if I'm reading crap like this.
    • Bernie -  •  10 mths ago
      this is how we should punish criminal. not sending them to jail and provide them free food, accomodation and happy hours.
    • Curtis W. R  •  10 mths ago
      Should have paid the original estimate.
    • LID  •  10 mths ago
      YES!!!
    • saml  •  10 mths ago
      BUSTED, pay up!!
    • Peter Parker  •  10 mths ago
      This is what happens when people don't make backups of their infomation. If you dont make backups of your computer, or any other divce that stores your data then you don't really care to lose the data.
    • Godiva  •  10 mths ago
      Good.

      He should have paid more and had 100 hours of community service.
    • Sporky McCrackin  •  10 mths ago
      Stinking thief got of lucky. Most thieves deserve a hollow point between the eyes.
    • Justin M  •  10 mths ago
      A little much but let that thief burn for this! I'm just wondering why someone as smart as a teacher would never backed up data if it had so much value. what if the computer crashed or something else?
    • John  •  10 mths ago
      Simply a great story about backing up your data. Crashing is just one good reason to back up. Here is another. While compensation is just, the professor just got schooled!
    • Ronald McPaul  •  10 mths ago
      Does this person have to steal more property in order to pay the restitution?
    • paul  •  10 mths ago
      computers crashing & stealing are two different issues.People who steal deserve every thing bad that happens to them in spades. Having a backup is irrelevent. People need to start having some morals & taking responsability for your actions instead of being a whining crybaby.
    • John  •  10 mths ago
      So there IS a value to all the data Yahoo vacums up as we surf?!
    • Heres the fix  •  10 mths ago
      The professor was a complete idiot not to have had a complete backup. The restitution ruling was completely stupid.
      • BobD 10 mths ago
        Restitution should have been removal of the thief's hands and then see if he steals again..I HATE THIEVES ! !
      • Peter Parker 10 mths ago
        While in college one professor said make a backup of your all work. At the end of the semester a student laptop was destroyed with the final paper for the class, she begged for time to redo the paper and was told no by the same professor who said to make backups and he failed her.
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