A Stolen Laptop, And An Argentine Story of Hope

A friend of mine wrote the following letter and sent it to the newspaper La Nación, which published it last week in its Letters to the Editor section. It’s a moving message of hope that I wanted to share with you here.

Despite the Robbery, Hope and Happiness Prevailed

Dear Editor:

On August 10, someone broke into my car and stole everything I had in it. Among other things, they took my laptop, which contained all of my work and personal information.

A month later I got an email from an unknown email address. It read:

“Natalia, we don’t know each other. Last week I sent you a DVD with all of the files that were on your laptop that was stolen from you. In a package I sent you, you’ll find an envelop with an explanation of what happened. I hope it’s useful to you. Saludos cordiales.”

I went to the post office and got the package. It contained a DVD and a letter. The letter said:

“Natalia, we don’t know each other. I am a computer repairman. A few days ago a person came into my store, bringing a laptop with him. He asked me to reformat it for him. It was evident that the laptop had been stolen. I realized this once I saw the information that was stored on the laptop. I asked the guy where he got the laptop. He said, “I bought it from a kid for 400 pesos.”

“If we were in a country where institutions work like they’re supposed to, I would have reported this guy to the police and the justice system would have taken care of this. But we both know that things don’t work that way here. If I had reported the guy to the police, he would have said he bought the laptop in good faith. Then, later on, he would have made my life impossible.”

“If I had not formatted the laptop, somebody else would have done it and all of your valuable information would have been lost forever. So I formatted your laptop, but not before making a backup of all your information. That information is yours, and surely it’s very valuable to you. I don’t know you, I don’t know who you are, but these kind of things make me feel very bad.”

“I created an email account so that when you get this DVD, you can confirm it’s receipt to me. Your files are still on my “pen-drive” and I won’t delete them until I know that you’ve received them properly. I hope to have helped you out at least a little by doing this.”

I couldn’t help but become very emotional about this. I felt a profound sense of happiness and strong hope. If we see the world as full of possibility, we can change it. If we treat each other with greater care and commitment, we can build a better Argentina.

It’s good to know that the person who sent me this DVD will be able to leave his children with a legacy of values like this. You see, there still are honest people in the world.

Natalia Fossati: natalia@accionarconsultores.com.ar

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