Some criminals are so dumb that it’s funny.

In this case, a man working in tech support in the 90s received what appeared to be a routine tech support call.

A customer contacted the company because he needed help with “his” laptop, but the first thing the employee did was ask for the serial number.

Turns out that laptop was stolen. And the company knew who the rightful owner was.

Read the full story below.

Another happy one involving a stolen laptop (something different this time)

I worked in laptop tech support back in the 1990s and someone called in for help with their system.

I asked for the serial number and it came up with a big red “STOLEN SYSTEM” flag.

I asked the customer to hold on a sec and talked to my manager.

He said that the rightful owner reported it stolen a few months earlier.

They ran an operation, pretty much.

He said to tell them we need to bring it in for a repair and send a shipping label.

As soon as we got the laptop we fixed it and sent it back… To its rightful owner.

A couple weeks later the original caller called back to check the status, and OK, but there’s something we need to discuss: where did you get the laptop? Because the person we sold it to reported it stolen.

He hung up and didn’t call back.

What did Reddit think?

A reader shares their thoughts.

Yikes!

Yup.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a restaurant employee who decided to put the staff over customers despite the official policy.

Gotta consider karma!

Another reader chimes in.

I like how they didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Just another day solving crimes at tech support.