VA Laptop Sold On Back of Truck

As a followup to the VA laptop stories, the Register reports that the laptop stolen from the home of a VA employee was sold on the black market. The buyer saw a flyer in the grocery store wanting the laptop back, and the buyer arranged for the return of the laptop via a friend who worked for the Park Service.

From the Reg here:

NBC reporter Pete Williams has been able to fill in some of the blanks after talking to investigators involved in the case.

The famous laptop and its hard drive ended up for sale on a “black market” near a subway station near Wheaton outside of Washington DC. We’re talking about the type of market where goods are sold off the “back of a truck”, according to Williams’s sources.

The unnamed buyer – who bought both components – later chanced upon flyers requesting the return of the kit at a local supermarket. After discovering that the serial numbers of his newly acquired laptop matched those of the stolen equipment, he reportedly brokered the return of the laptop through a friend in the US Park Police. No doubt the $50,000 reward offered for the return of the laptop greased the wheels of this deal. We’d be a tad suspicious about the circumstances of this return but, in the absence of any concrete evidence, let’s give the man involved the benefit of the doubt. The return of the laptop has allowed VA officials to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Information held on the laptop included the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of millions of former US servicemen and women dating back to 1975. VA officials went public to warn veterans of the incident. FBI and local law enforcement officials were involved in investigating the security breach.