AUSTRALIA REWARD OFFERED BY BUSINESSMAN FOR RETURN OF STOLEN COMPUTERS portmacquarie.yourguideWork lost in computer theft
Wednesday, 26 May 2004

By LAUREN BARKER

A COMPUTER software designer wants his computer back – so much so he is offering a $3000 reward to the person who tracks it down.

His laptop was among three computers stolen from his Flynn St home in a brazen daylight break-in on Sunday.

People say that information makes the world go round, but for this business professional, it is his entire world.

A project he has been working on for eight months, which was two days from completion, was among the information stored on his computer hard drive.

He was due to send the project to his Sydney employers on Monday, only to come home the night before to discover his house ransacked and $10,000 worth of equipment stolen.

"I was in shock ... extreme shock," said the owner, who does not want to be named.

"To come home and see your house turned upside down is hard."

The equipment included a HP Pentium PC laptop worth $5500. It is described as black with a HP logo on the front and various connection features.

There was also an Apple PowerBook G4 and an Apple iBook, both containing university notes and original music recorded by the owners.

The businessman has 20 clients across the country and is working on projects for many of these.

"The laptops usually come everywhere with us," he said.

"A lot of the information stored on the computers is personal."

He said he usually copied his work to another disc but, because he had been travelling, he had not bothered for the past six weeks.

Now he is focusing on getting the computers back by offering a healthy reward.

"A new computer won't help solve the problem ... I don't have my work," he said.

Anyone with information can contact 0405 789 167