Last month I had my laptop stolen for it to be retrieved from a bin in a neighbouring council estate, screen, keyboard and case wrecked. Because it had been re

Last month I had my laptop stolen for it to be retrieved from a bin in a neighbouring council estate, screen, keyboard and case wrecked. Because it had been retrieved (which was good in that I got my data back) it was not 'stolen', merely 'criminal damage'. Although a police matter rather than something I have to pursue with 'civil action' of my own, a lot of hoops have to be gone through before things happen. So the original box - Dell 'high end' from 2 years ago cost £800. Trying to work out what was wrong with it and then running around town + the internet to get a repair quote has taken a good day of my time. This was quite an effort with a lot of repair shops just not able to give a quote just like that. Either they want £50 for just the quote or they don't want to bother with it as it is too much hassle - fair enough. Eventually - thank my lucky stars - I get a quote for £417 from some small repair shop, this was just the ticket I needed to be able to help the police proceed with some action. The thief have allegedly had their 'bail hearing' and I am none the wiser as to what happened. Even if they were going to pay the £417 the quote came to I doubt that I would want it fixed given the hassle involved in that. A new replacement machine is what I would like, not something that has the scars of quite a traumatic incident. Even though prices go down it still costs ~£800 to get a similar PC (i7, HD screen, backlit keyboard, 8Gb RAM, aluminium case). A £400 'High Street' machine might be pretty good but I doubt I will get the magic 'i7' badge. So the costs - I needed the machine for out of hours support so other arrangements had to be made for that. I spent quite a lot of time with the police at the time of the incident and following things up running around to repair shops - surprisingly draining. Plus the story is not over yet, by the time I am done it could be a week's worth of effort to get the thing back, and that is assuming that the thief just comes up with the money. How do I value my time? If I look at lowest of the low contractor rate as a starting point and imagine how much a few days work for a client could be then my time spent running around for some notional £417 could be more profitable. Plus I would achieve something. Oddly though, even though I am 'turn the other cheek', in this case I am keen that the thief has the criminal record and the difficulty of getting £££ together. The fact that £417 does not buy me a replacement 'i7' machine (with backlit keyboard, HD screen and 8Gb RAM) is in some ways a detail. Although I have had the help of the police I am surprised at how things work out - thief released under caution and some assumption that I don't deserve my machine simply replaced - 'like for like' and not patched up together again. Also this burden of running around town to get quotes for a repair, isn't my time valuable?