That which does not kill us

[c.c.r.]

I'm still in shock. I went home last night and found that both of my 2 computers had been stolen. Monitors, mice, and keyboards too.

Ironically, I had formatted my iPod the day before. I brought it to work with me yesterday, even though it had no music on it. I use it for contacts. I was just going to adjust some of my playlists last night and sync back up. But not now.

My computers have been stolen. They're gone forever. That's my entire music library, my collection of South Park episodes and seven years' worth of personal data, photos, and even my website and its content. Gone. I sold all of my CDs months ago, when I was poorer than dirt, but at least I had my iPod and my MP3s. Not any more.

I'm no longer a Windows user. Nor am I a Media Center 9 user. I'm not even an iPod user anymore, for how can I be if I don't have a computer to load it with?

I know who did it, too. My ex-roomate. He'd been my friend for years via the internet, and moved in with me to help out with bills after my wife left me in early February. I noticed that he was stealing from me and kicked him out a couple weeks ago.

The son of a whore also did a load of laundry when he was there and helped himself to some frozen pizza.

There's nothing I can do now. I'll never find my computers; he's probably already sold them or traded them for weed. He's probably on a bus out of town right now, because he knows he can't stay in my town. I'll never get them back, I'll never get that data back, and I'll never get my music back.

The only thing that I can do is tell EVERYONE. I will tell his friends, with whom he played his favorite video game. If he shows up online again, they'll know who he really is now. I will tell his family, whose enthusiasm for his move out of their house and into mine is now crystal clear. I will tell his former girlfriend, for whom he still pines away, that she was right and I was wrong.

So, indulge me for a moment while I enter this into public record. Following is the email that I'm sending out to everyone that I know who also knew him.

And you, kind reader, take this to heart: Don't trust anyone. Don't extend a hand of kindness to anyone. Don't open your home to anyone. Don't take for granted that anyone has anything on their mind other than their own well-being. I don't care if they're your friend, your spouse, or someone you've just met. They will betray you and you will suffer.

I just can't believe it's all gone.

[c.c.r.]

Subject: Chris Evans, aka "Wicked" wanted by Sherrif's dept

My name is Kurt Young and I live in Bremerton, Washington. My former friend and roomate, Christopher Evans, known also as "Wicked" or "Wick" is wanted for questioning by the Kitsap County Sherrif's Office for his role in the burglary of my house.

On the 9th of June, 2003, four days after Chris left a threatening voice mail stating that he will get his computer "The easy way or the hard way," I arrived home from work to discover that my house had been broken into and two computers, their monitors and accessories had been stolen. This was my personal computer and the computer that is to be awarded my ex-wife via our divorce proceedings.

Chris was under the impression that my ex-wife's computer was, in fact, his own. I believe that he entered my house on the 9th of June to take "his" computer. While here, I believe that Chris's own maliciousness, greed, and lack of honor led him to steal my computer as well, an act that he knew would cause me intense personal anguish.

While in my house, he also did a load of laundry and helped himself to a frozen pizza and some orange juice. He left fingerprints all over the glass of OJ and the knife that he used to cut the pizza. He also left a fat, half-smoked roach in the empty glass of OJ.

At this time, I do not know where Chris is. I've given the Kitsap County Sherrif's Department as much information as I have as to his last known whereabouts and put them in contact with his last place of employment. I am writing this email in an attempt to do two things: warn potential targets of this particular con artist and gather information on his whereabouts.

If you have any information on Chris's current location, please contact the Kitsap County Sherrif's Department at 360-337-7101. The Deputy in charge is Schon Montague, and the case number is K03-8328. If he is outside the state of Washington, I surmise that I'm more or less out of luck; I don't think a "common" burglary is worth a dime across state lines. In that case, please contact me directly by responding to this email or calling me at 360-6##-1###.

But most importantly, don't become a victim. I believed that "Wick" was my best friend. I trusted him completely, let him stay in my house, eat my food, drive my car, and was even foolish enough to give him my ATM card. Luckily, I noticed the very first $41.50 withdrawl (I never use surcharge machines) and changed the PIN. After that, he stole my laptop computer and sold it, then conned a mutual friend out of the money to get it out of pawn. Once it was safely back in my hands, I realized that he had also stolen my camcorder and sold it outright (not pawned... sold) to the same pawn shop. That's when I kicked him out.

Since then, he's broken into that same mutual friend's house and conned her out of another $40. I'm not sure how much money he got for selling my computers, but he's likely already spent it on marijuana and a bus ticket out of town. I had 7 years of accumulated music, documents, photos, and video on my computer, as well as some data that can never be replaced. I expect that he may head south, to California, since it's his old neighborhood.

Chris Evans is a pathological liar. He has an addiction to marijuana that is in reality, I suspect, a manifestation of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He will earn your trust, lie to you, con you out of as much money he can, and move on. He is a con man in the most classic sense. He has no respect, no honor, and no morals. He cares about nothing but himself and has hurt me personally very deeply. Please don't trust him.

I have sent this email to everyone I know that also knows him. If you've taken the time to read it all, and if you believe me, I would like you to do me the favor of sending it to the people in your address book that I've missed who also know him. They must be warned too. (please don't email this to people who don't know Chris... I'm not going for a chain letter here)

Thank you for your time,

Kurt Young
Bremerton, WA

[Ghettogoody]

This happened in March? Many condolences though, I can understand the anguish you feel.

[c.c.r.]

OMFG, did I say March?

...oops.

[dmt1]

#### Kurt, I'm truly sorry to hear that...You've been dealing with alot of junk lately, no way you deserved this one...

[m.r.m.]

i?m sorry for you, mate.

[tntracy]

OMG.

Kurt, dude, I am so sorry this happened to you. What an unbelievable lowlife who did this. I hope you get your stuff back, and I hope the guy that did it gets his due.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Tom

[ashawley]

Oh, man, I am so, so sorry Kurt. Of all the things that have happened and now this. I can't imagine. No way. I can see why what with all you've gone through that your ability to trust anyone is going to be sorely tested for quite a while.

Man, you are due a streak of good luck, you really are.

I'm sorry once again....

Adam

[caterinka]

Shall we all load "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" on our iPods and play it until Kurt feels better?

Kurt, this well and truly sucks. I'm sorry.

[Bob]

Kurt,
Sorry about your bad luck mate, there are some sh**ty people in the world but there are good uns too - hopefully he will get his sorry butt thrown in jail and you'll get your stuff back.

[Timmy Yak]

Kurt,
My heart goes out to you. From my time on the lounge I have come to know you as a very amazing person. This only goes to show that bad things happen to good people. I know what it feels like to have something that is dear to you stolen. I cried. So let it out Kurt! My shoulder is here for you.

I hope the b##tard burns in hell! If there is anything we can do for you, let us know. We are here to help.

Everyone raise a glass to Kurt and say better days are ahead of you.:)

[iLounger]

Kurt, I'm VERY sorry to hear about your loss. That no-good bas###d.

Dennis

[dean0]

ouch, that has to be the worst stab in the back i've ever heard. sorry for you man, but don't let one bad apple (not apple ipod of course) ruin it for the bunch, you gotta believe that there are good people out there.

case in point: i would like to help you get you music back. i think that you post a list of all the songs/artists/albums you had stolen, and users that have those songs legaly, can send you a copy. since you do own the songs, you should still be able to own a copy, correct? i don't know the what the legal standing or this would be, but since you owned the music at one point, you should still be able to claim ownership of 1 copy. (could somebody help me out here?) as long as you only get back what was stolen from you, i don't consider it to be against the law.

anybody else interested in trying to help out?

[Timmy Yak]

Homeowners insurance will at least cover the computers, but since he sold the cd's a while back, he won't be able to get those.

But i'll be up for helping out.:D

[dmt1]

Kurt,

Keeping Deano's post in mind, I'd just like to point that in large part thanks to you we have our MC9 media servers up and running (Mine is now FINALLY accessible), and once you're up and running again, if you're interested PM me and you can check out my library....

[MicFlash]

you need any songs dude, let me know and i'll help ya out.

best
-m

[ginalee]

I'm also shocked to say the least.
I don't think any of us can even begin to feel the loss of your material stuff you worked hard to acquire and put together not to mention the memories and traces of your personal life gone. Hope you get at least some of your stuff back.

[c.c.r.]

Thanks for the kind words everybody. You guys mean a lot to me.

Ginalee, I like your signature line a lot. I can relate.

There's no realistic hope that I'll ever see my computers again. I had some, but it dinna pan out, and I've come to grips with the facts now. Even if I got the equipment back, he's long since formatted them -- he formatted my laptop and started running Setup on it after he stole it last month.

What I'll miss most:
- My music collection, naturally, but more importantly, my Media Center 9 library. My "Top Hits" smartlist was very well defined. You could listen to it and know exactly who I was.

- A digital photo that I took of a girl I was stuck on once. She was a great person, a real friend, and she was gorgeous. I was married, and so I remained honorable (as best I could), but I took her picture one cloudy day near a park. Recently, I've had it as a web item on my desktop... not my wallpaper, just a little 2" X 3" photo in the bottom-right of my screen. Her smile, on more than one occasion, saw me through some very hard times, and it pains me that I will never see it again.

I'm cooking up a plan... get a smaller place, trade up the car, etc etc etc. PCs are pretty cheap these days, and I could build one for probably around $400 or so, prolly could do it by around late Fall. Of course, in the past, when Mac vs PC Flame Wars were a bit more common around here, I was never shy about accepting donations of new 17" iMacs, heh. I'd like to state for the record that donations of iMacs and iBooks are still gladly being accepted, and though none have been donated yet, our friendly operators remain standing by. :D

[Timmy Yak]

Well now if you get a smaller place, you could always go out and get that Alienware you always talk about.

But don't you have Homeowners insurance? That will cover the computers.

[ginalee]

Hope my quote didn't rub too much salt in the wound.

It kinda just gets you thinkin about the extent we have allowed ourselves to become dependent on computers and how willingly we have "digitalized" our lives. When things go wrong - their loss is so great cos they have become a part of us, a part of our routine, part of our way of expressiing ourselves, part of how we live. Should we continue on this bandwagon? Once we get on - is there no way back?

[ToddW]

Kurt,

Sorry to hear about your situation. I can definately relate to your predicament. About three years ago while I was in graduate school, my apartment was set on fire. It was determined no accident. I lost thousands of dollars of computer hardware, as well as personal belongings and 90% of my graduate research. On top of that I was in a rocky relationship that was leading towards marriage and was out of that within a week after the incident. On top of that my car broke down to unrepairable. All that was recoverable was an old watered down copy of On The Road. All I had was a backpack in my lab a school that had my research notebook (thank god) and my old archos mp3 player. I lived in my lab for a week until I could find a better place to live and until I straigtened everything out with Insurance/Banks/Police/Fire etc.

Three years later I have a good job, good wife, and a 3.5 month child. Oh yeah, that and one iPod. The one thing that helped me through that endeavor is this one phrase "and this too shall pass".

Dude if you need anything (music/old computer parts) let me know. I use MC9 and would gladly set up media server for a day and let you explore my library if needed.

Keep your head up dude,

Todd

[c.c.r.]

I dunno really what to say now...

The last few months have made me very cynical. The past couple hours have reminded me that even though there are a lot of schmucks out there, they're the minority. Most folk are good, kind, and honorable. Even though my inner cynic will never die, he's been given a mighty smackdown by some good friends.

So here's a very public shout-out to some awesome individuals. The Admin/Mod list for these forums is rings out like a list of my personal heroes: Dennis and Tom, Cate, John, Bob and Prithvi.

And as for you, Adam... I've only got one thing left to say to you:

You are my homie, and to you, I say 'word.'

[eustacescrubb]

You are my homie, and to you, I say 'word.'

Do we listen to Mike Doughty?

[ironchef9000]

Don't you have homeowners insurance that will compensate you for at least some of the damages?

I'm assuming you've already filed a police report....I'm not in law or anything, but that seems like a logical progression if you really believe that there is no way to get the computers back.

Unfortunately, there is not much monetary compensation (if any) that you can receive from the data contained within the computers, which is obviously what is most important, but its something, at the very least.

Also, don't be surprised to see this guy bring attention to himself or hislocation one way or another... He'll be back, they always come back.

[CanaMacPod]

Kurt, I know I'm a little late on the condolences bandwagon, but I'd like you to know how sorry I am to hear this sad news. Of all the people who deserve something like this you would be at the bottom of the list. I can't believe someone would be so evil and heartless. After all your generosity. Reminds me of a story I heard about a man who invited a homeless couple into his home for Christmas Eve. When he woke up the next morning, his money, his car and even food from his fridge were gone. On top of all that, so were his Christmas presents. People really are that mean sometimes. Just remember all your good friends here at the 'Lounge: we won't let you down.
Btw, I don't know If you're a religious man at all, but I know that God is watching out for you. Things will turn out ok.
Good luck, man

P.S.
How can I help with your music problem?

[c.c.r.]

Naaw, -e, I got that from someone else around here. :)

I've filed a police report, but since he'd established residence there, it's harder to prosecute; turns into my word vs his. Then it turns into my lawyer vs his. The sherrif's deputy gave me a worst case scenario of going to court and Mr. Evans claiming that the stuff was his in the first place, heh. If you think of it, it's a much better con than just breaking into a stranger's house... free room and board for a while and a truckful of swag. :rolleyes:

I'm going to be calling the homeowner's insurance people tomorrow. I was going to do it today, but I got a bit distracted by something Adam posted. I'm optimistically cynical about it though... they were built, some from parts that're 5 or more years old. No receipts, no serial numbers, no photos. Sigh. Here's hoping they take my word for it, eh?

And Cana, though I don't share your beliefs, you do, and that makes what you said a very nice thing to say. Thank you.

[ashawley]

Originally posted by c.c.r.

And as for you, Adam... I've only got one thing left to say to you:

You are my homie, and to you, I say 'word.'

LOL Kurt. Thanks for that. I know you stole it (hm, who was that from), but I still crack up everytime I hear that.

-your homie. :D :D

Adam

[martini]

Aww, Kurt, I'm so sorry to hear that. ::Sends good vibes Kurt's way::

I wish there was something I could do... it's terrible when things like this happen to good people, especially when they happen because you're trying to do good. This sucks, and nothing I can say will make it better, but as you can see from the posts to this thread, everyone here supports you, and is hoping that good things come your way real, real soon.

[12345]

This is my first time posting here but my computers got stolen last month. Thankfully I kept backups so I only lost a months worth of work. Homeowners insurance covered all of it for me so I got a new alienware system (the keyboards are a POS) and a new window :)

Hope everything turns out good 4 you.

[c.c.r.]

Digging up this old post for an update...

Check out this link: http://www.kitsapgov.com/sheriff/incustody.asp

Look about for booking number 200306167.

Yup, that's my ex-roomate and ex-friend, Christopher Charles Evans. In jail. Right now. Wearing the jumpsuit. Wishing someone cared enough about him to bail him out. As I type this, as a matter of fact, he's busying himself worrying about dropping the soap.

Me, on the other hand, I'm enjoying the sun, getting ready to go meet my girlfriend for lunch, and otherwise just being NOT in jail.

The charges, by the way, are second degree trafficking in stolen property. I think that that's 5-10 years in this state. Not sure, though. ;)

[dmt1]

Hey did they get him because of the stuff he pinched from you, or are these other charges? If they weren't from your stuff, maybe you could pile on a little more, that would be sweet...While he's there, we should send him some mail with a return address to Iraq, from some guy named Hussein and let the FBI and CIA have a little fun with him...

Anyone who has money they just HAVE to get rid of, bail this guy out....You'll never have to worry about your dough again...

[Bob]

Revenge is a dish best served cold

Hope he remembered to buy soap-on-a-rope before he went inside:eek:

[Jackonicko]

Kurt,

I'm on the wrong side of the pond to be of much real use, but PM me your e-address and I'll send you a list of my CDs. Anything I have which would replace anything you've lost can be en route to you on MP3 CD within days.

Bad luck, hope it all gets sorted.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

[c.c.r.]

Originally posted by Jackonicko
Kurt,

I'm on the wrong side of the pond to be of much real use, but PM me your e-address and I'll send you a list of my CDs. Anything I have which would replace anything you've lost can be en route to you on MP3 CD within days.

Bad luck, hope it all gets sorted.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Thankee, sir, but I'm back up to speed now. I've become the default CD bin for all of my friends; for a while, they were loading me up with as many CDs as they could bring me. In addition to some outstanding gifts from other 'loungers, I hit a few pawn shops and second hand stores... the 'pod is well stocked.

I've told some of his family and friends today that I learned he'd finally landed in jail. I haven't spoken to a single person about it who feels bad for him. His brother says that he needed either jail or the military... looks like the one has an easier application process than the other does, eh? :p

[ashawley]

A hearty WOOT in your direction sir! :D

Adam

[CanaMacPod]

Yay for c.c.! I told you everything would work out, didn't I? And a girlfriend to boot! ;)

[Bob]

Originally posted by CanaWinPod
And a girlfriend to boot! ;)

We'll have none of that!!!;)