14 DAY TRIAL // A researcher is devastated after a thief stole her laptop containing years-worth of prostate cancer cure data that was never backed up and can't be replicated.
The missing 13-inch white Macbook belongs to Sook Shin, who together with her husband Ralf Jankecht, are leading cancer researchers at Oklahoma University.
Last Sunday, on their way to the lab, the couple stopped at Panera on north Western Avenue in Oklahoma City for a quick meal.
When they returned to the car, they found a window smashed and the laptop bag missing. Unfortunately, there are no copies of the data.
"I cannot eat and sleep since last Sunday. I'm devastated and I feel so guilty," Shin told News 9. That's totally understandable, since the two have been working long hours, seven days a week, for years to research the disease.
This week the couple has been busy posting flyers in pawn shops offering a no-questions-asked $1,000 reward for the safe return of the laptop.
They fear that since the computer was password protected, the thief won't even realize the importance of the information and will wipe the hard drive clean.
"Thief, it is OK. Everybody makes mistakes. Please return my computer safely for no questions asked $1,000 reward. If so, I would be forever grateful to you," Shin wrote on the flyer.
"Please return the computer with the data saved. This would tremendously help us and you would do something for society," pleaded Ralf Jankecht, who is also a professor of cell biology at OU.
Unfortunately, the nature of the data means that most of it can never be replaced. Some parts can be reconstructed by redoing tests which could take up to two years.
If there is still a need for examples of how important backing up data is, this case definitely qualifies.