On being mugged ... and tips for a new netbook

[Tirian]

So, after five years in London I finally succumbed to the inevitable. Got jumped from behind by three scum, literally 20 seconds from my front door. Was just returning from a weekend away, and had my new Asus in the backpack, so they lifted that along with phone & wallet.

Police were round very promptly, to be fair - although it did take a ridiculous amount of time to get through on the emergency no. - and drove me round the area to see if we could spot them, but no sign. Not a great surprise.

So anyway, having greatly enjoyed having a netbook for 2 months, I intend to get another now. The only thing that bugged me about the Asus was that the keys kept popping loose as I typed - wasn't a huge niggle, but enough that I would probably go for something different now.

If anyone's got any suggestions, glad to hear em - I don't want to spend more than ?250 (equally, if anyone's got a second hand one to get rid of, PM me! I'd be more than happy to fork out second hand prices rather than stump up for brand new again so soon after).

Oh, and if anyone offers you a cheap black Asus 904HD, and a bricked Nokia N95, and a brown wallet full of bank cards ... please beat them to a pulp - and then PM me!

[QualityChimp]

Sorry to hear about what happened to you. At least you're OK and you can go to sleep knowing you're not like those people who mugged you...

Not got a netbook myself, but I looked for a friend and found this list of reviews from Mobile Computer.

Although a quick search on Google for "netbook, reviews" gives a hefty list.

Nice to have an excuse to treat yourself - silver lining and all that!

[abigsmurf]

Couple pieces of advise:

Make sure you check out the victims of crime fund, may be able to get some money from the government. Also, contents insurance will usually cover stuff stolen when out and about, see if you can claim off of that (and if you have credit card insurance too). Be warned if you do both of these things, sometimes insurance companies aren't too happy about double dipping.

[Tirian]

I thought the victims of crime fund was mainly for people who were injured? My brother got some money from it way back, but that was because some drunk **** smashed a bottle over his head unprovoked, and landed him in hospital for a week.

Contents insurance I don't have - I live in shared house with a couple of other people, and insurers tend to ask for ridiculous things like individual locks on all the bedroom doors before they will cover you.

The way I see it is that I have 'self-insured' for the last ten years. Since this is the first time I've had to pay out on the policy, I am probably still quids in compared to if I had been paying premiums for ten years.

QualityChimp - yeah, I tend to look for the bright side of things. Not being dead in the street is a big plus. People get stabbed with disturbing frequency round here. I had no particular desire to become one of them. Also, if this had happened 3 years ago, when I was working in a really badly paid job, it would have been a lot worse. As it is, I'm in a secure job, and well paid (probably peanuts to some people, but well enough paid for me to do pretty much everything I want to, and that's what counts!)

By comparison, by the time the three grunts who jumped me have divvied up my stuff - let's say they get ?50 from a fence for the netbook - they'll have barely ?40 each. And that's assuming they get anything at all for a barred phone. I do wonder what kind of a life they actually have - I even feel sorry for them in a way.