Opinionstrader -

If the government you are referring to is the US Government, then if in fact the machine was stolen, and stealing government property is a federal offense, this ratchets up the severity of the crime. If the machine was purchased under a no bid procurement process, then the original cost could be substantially more than what a citizen would have paid at a local electronics store for an equivalent machine.

Based on a program I saw recently, it was claimed that the US Government was being charged by their contractor $45 for a six pack of Coke, which can be purchased at any supermarket in the States for $5.00 or $6.00. Of course one could argue that the shipping costs are substantial from the US to Iraq, but in fact the purchased soft drinks were domestic.

At any rate the value of the purportedly stolen computer as purchased from the vendor could be as much as $7-9,000, clearly a substantial amount of money.

As a tax paying citizen, I consider the alleged stolen computer my property, or at least a pro-rata share, and hope that you have been in contact with the FBI on this matter. I feel certain if Elliot Ness were still with the Bureau something would probably be done about this.

Perhaps the perpetrator needed a computer on which to store veterans records, or Los Alamos files that were claimed to have been stolen or misplaced. Is this the tip of the iceberg?