AFRICA COMPUTER STOLEN http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1040387.ece/Writer-begs-for-laptop

Writer begs for laptop

Apr 27, 2011 10:01 PM | By PHILANI NOMBEMBE 

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Author Max du Preez is so desperate to get his stolen laptop back that he wrote to a Cape Town newspaper yesterday promising the thieves R7000 if they returned it.

Du Preez had his cellphone and Apple Macbook Pro stolen from his office in broad daylight on Thursday last week. It had the text of his book about former president Nelson Mandela stored on it.

"It's pretty devastating. Everything I do is on my computer. People are saying 'You're a fool for not backing up'. They are probably right. I'm paranoid about my computer. It's with me all the time."

He said a man knocked at his office door in Long Street, Cape Town, asking for directions.

"I had an impression they were from some rural area so I was very sympathetic. He kept on asking questions.

"I suddenly got suspicious. As I turned around his companions stepped into my office and grabbed my cellphone and laptop. Then this guy I was talking to started running. I locked the office quickly and ran for 2km behind them. I lost them in the Company Gardens."

He called the police flying squad at once. They did not respond. Then he reported the theft at a police station. Now he is pinning his hopes on the city's CCTV cameras.

" I lost two chapters that had all my research for the rest of the book."