Sometimes, criminals leave behind the easiest clues without realizing it.

The following story involves a man who was asked by the police to recover data from a stolen laptop.

The device had been quickly formatted, but someone had used it shortly after it was stolen.

What they found on it ended up revealing far more than expected.

Read the full story below for all the details.

This is a happy one

Though I was in tech support at the time, this was not exactly a tech support issue.

It is a great and true story. The cops came to the company I work for.

They asked if we could recover the data on a laptop they recovered along with other stolen goods.

This was a very expensive laptop.

This man asked when the laptop was stolen.

I think they suspected whoever stole it was responsible for a rash of thefts.

They said they were looking for any information that might lead them to who had the laptop in possession after it was stolen.

We asked when it was stolen. They said June 11.

We had the DR engineers take a look.

They found out that someone did use it on the 12th.

They gave the cops all the information they had recovered.

We gave the cops that person’s full name, phone number, and address.

We also gave former employers and three personal references.

He had saved his resume on there. He then did a quick format on the FAT drive.

This was 30 years ago. FAT does not overwrite all the sectors with a quick format.

So it was an easy recovery.

Let’s find out what others have to say about this.

Data recovery isn’t that hard, says this one.

This user makes a valid point.

Yes, indeed!

Finally, this person shares some useful info.

If you’re going to steal a laptop, maybe don’t leave your resume behind.

If you liked this story, check out this post about an apartment-dweller who called the authorities when they hadn’t heard or seen their neighbor in a few days.