The $54 Million Laptop? Great….a Roy Pearson Copy Cat.

It appears we have our first confirmed Roy Pearson copy cat. Washington Area consumer Raelyn Campbell is suing Best Buy for $54 million after they lost her $1,100 laptop computer. What makes Ms. Campbell only slightly different from Pearson is that a) she seems to have a legitimate gripe against Best Buy; b) she appears to have been reasonable in attempting to resolve the matter; c) she admits that she “has no expectation she will win a multimillion-dollar judgment”; and d) Best Buy handled the problem poorly. What makes her exactly the same as the infamous Judge Pearson is that she became entrenched in her position and rejected reasonable offers that protected her interests and fairly compensated her.

More after the jump.
Campbell’s main concern is that her laptop had personal information and its theft/loss makes her susceptible to identity theft. The problem is, that’s all speculation. There is no evidence that in the six months since the laptop disappeared that her identity has been compromised.

Even if it has, there are simple, effective steps that she could have taken to protect her credit. For one, she could notify the credit bureaus and institute a credit freeze on her name and SSN (which is FREE). This would mean that she would be notified in advance of any attempt by someone to obtain credit in her name. We did this when we found out that an illegal immigrant was using my wife’s name to get cable and phone service in Las Vegas. In addition, just about every major credit company and bank, offer an identity theft monitoring program. In fact, Campbell admittedly enrolled in one. For $10 per month. My bet is she spends more than $10 a week on Starbucks, but somehow feels that protecting her identity for $10 a month is “outrageous”.

Let’s think critically about what’s at stake here:

An $1100 laptop;

$10 per month for identity theft monitoring; and

Some consideration for her time, effort and hassle (which may not compensable depending on her legal theory).

Is that worth $54 million? It’s not even worth $5,400. Best Buy’s last offer was more than fair ($2,500 in cash, $1,100 refund and a $500 gift card), but Campbell rejected this because “her expenses have risen, including time spent filing a police report and consulting with lawyers about her case.” What were her expenses? She said she consulted a legal aid lawyer. That advice was worth exactly what she paid for it. The filing fee? Surely that hasn’t risen to $2,500 since I left the full time practice of law 15 months ago. The $600 for 5 years of identity monitoring? Its reasonable to think that if the thieves hadn’t used her identity after 5 years, they aren’t going to.

So the last offer nets her what? About $1,600-$1,700 in cash, a new laptop and maybe an iPhone? Sign me up for that deal.

Just so you don’t think I’m hammering too hard on this woman, Best Buy clearly screwed the pooch on this one (I’ve always loved that phrase since watching and reading The Right Stuff). They jerked her around for a few weeks and initially refused to admit they lost her laptop. When they admitted they lost it, they failed to offer her a full refund for the value of the computer. When Campbell rejected this low ball and countered with a demand for $2,100 cash, Best Buy ignored her until Campbell called the AG’s office. They then raised the offer to a more reasonable $1,100 refund and $500 gift card for the store. By this time, several months had passed, Ms. Campbell grew increasingly frustrated and anxious that her identity was stolen.

Both parties have likely missed their best opportunity to resolve this in mutually satisfactory manner. Best Buy probably could have satisfied her concerns in August with an apology, the $1,100 refund and $500 gift card. They have already upped their offer and now have to pay legal fees on top of the settlement money.

The big problem for Ms. Campbell is that she’s likely overplayed her hand. Now that this has hit the blogs and major news outlets, its only a matter of time before she’s fawned over by the likes of Meredith Viera and Diane Sawyer. Campbell will get a taste for publicity. She will surely milk her “15 Minutes.” And while she does, Best Buy’s $300 per hour lawyers will be clocking up fees and will bury her in paper. They will be far less likely to make any offer more reasonable than the one for $2,500 cash, an $1,100 refund and $500 in gift cards.

Let’s hope sanity prevails.