Thief keeps laptop, returns contents

A thief who stole the laptop of a university professor later returned the contents on a USB memory stick.

The professor, who teaches at Umea University in Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen.

But a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick, reports the Daily Telegraph.

"I am very happy. This story makes me feel hope for humanity," the unnamed professor told local V�sterbottens-Kuriren newspaper.

The professor left his bag, containing the laptop, hidden behind a door in his apartment stairwell while he went into the building's laundry room.

When he emerged a short time later, the bag had gone. It was returned shortly after, without the laptop.

"The backpack was there again. With all the papers, calendar and credit cards. It was just the computer that was missing," he said.

However, a week after the theft, the professor received a USB stick containing all the documents - which would have taken several hours to download.

"It is my life. I have documented everything in it that has happened in the last 10 years and beyond," he said.

"Often when people lose their computers and cameras, it is understandably not the gadget itself that is the most important. The content is often irreplaceable."