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posted by martyb on Saturday June 13 2015, @08:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the It's-Milliner-Time! dept.

We put a lot of trust in big companies, so when they let us down it can have serious consequences.

I recently went shopping for a new computer. I wanted a low-end laptop for light work, and the HP Stream seemed like a good deal. That deal was made even sweeter when Best Buy offered to sell me a returned one for almost 20 percent off. The salesman assured me that it was in like-new condition and that they would honor all warranties. Sold.

I always get a little thrill opening a new gadget. The computer looked like it had never been touched and all the paperwork was still in sealed bags. There was even a slip of paper in the box with the ID of the tech who cleaned and certified the unit.

So it surprised me when I booted up and saw someone else's name and Hotmail address at the login prompt. So much for like-new!

As I stared at the full name and e-mail address of the previous owner—let's call him David—I wondered. Could I get into this computer another way? It was mine after all. And how much more could I learn about him? How bad of a mistake had the store made?

Any similar stories out there Soylentils care to share?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Saturday June 13 2015, @10:14PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Saturday June 13 2015, @10:14PM (#195902) Journal

    They say stereotypes aren't accurate, but it in this case, it was. This completely sub-height, sub-soaped, early-40s humanoid came into the repair shop for something trivial. I think his HP tower needed a new CD-RW drive. We took it in and worked on it later. When I installed the new drive, I wanted to test it would work properly with a full pile of data. Normally, I'd backup My Docs, My Pics, or MP3s, but he didn't have enough of that to cover 100MB. Since he had file sharing software like Bearshare or Kazaa installed, I looked for movie files. And what I found was grotesque: two young girls, preschool-age, in a hottub being encouraged to give a tug to the fully-erect penis of the videographer.

    I told the owner, and was quite clear I wanted to call the police. He knew the creeper humanoid, and verified what I saw for himself before dialing. The local cop, a man from an earlier age, didn't understand computers, but took the machine and had the guy arrested. That cop later told us the guy was given a slap on the wrist by the local liberal judge and that was it. I don't know if he got his computer back from the police, but we never saw him again.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @01:24AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @01:24AM (#195939)

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
    Hash: SHA1

    What a touching story. And you are right, the stereotypical meddler gloves fit you just right. You've got it all, including the apparent blindness to your own filthiness and hypocrisy.

    Let's recount. You betrayed the customer's trust, which was a breach of both personal and professional ethics in this case, and rummaged through his files, when creating your own temp file would have been totally sufficient. You unearthed some seemingly illegal video (not that you could verify its legality in any meaningful way). You watched what you thought were some youngsters being molested in a tub. Then, instead of talking to authorities directly, you shared this self-proclaimed smut with another employee. Then you ratted the guy out. You did this all while having zero evidence of the guy obtaining or having seen the movie. You, on the other hand, did actively seek private movie files, and have seen the movie. Prima facie, you are the bloody pedo. I don't think pedofilia is unethical, but you obviously do, right? I am not even going to start on the whole depiction versus child abuse issue here, but if you indeed found file-sharing apps, then the movie was likely a non-commercial copy, and so the whole incident did not hurt anyone, and you could as well be reporting drawn manga.

    You are also a very lucky guy, because the usual practice is to shoot the messenger, along with everyone else who came in contact with thoughtcrime videos. If I were you, I would not be so concerned with your customer being let free; instead, I would be thanking my numerous gods for not landing in a big house myself.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:16AM

    by Gravis (4596) on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:16AM (#196039)

    I told the owner, and was quite clear I wanted to call the police.

    you should have called the FBI as they are the ones that deal with this type of twisted shit.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday June 14 2015, @01:22PM

      by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Sunday June 14 2015, @01:22PM (#196115)

      What's twisted is that certain arrangements of bits are illegal, and the fact that someone (not necessarily the owner of the computer) possibly molested a child. But instead of going after people who take harmful actions, we've chosen to go after people who possess videos or images. A good use of resources, clearly, and completely constitutional as well.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @06:47PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @06:47PM (#196609)

        Mom, punish him! He's thinking bad thoughts!