Parents Issue Plea for Return of Priceless Pix

 by Barry Owens

Sometime over the weekend of Oct. 16, a thief slunk into the basement office of a furniture store at 182 Duane St. and stole a laptop off the store owner's desk.
Parents Shawn Miller and Amy Crain lost every photograph they had taken of their three-month-old son Graydon when a thief stole their laptop computer. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum
And just like that, Amy Crain, owner of Room, lost every photograph she had taken of her three-month-old-son Graydon.

"Tons of pictures," she said. "Since the day he was born."

Crain is angry, of course, "but mostly I feel like an idiot," she said, explaining that she was having trouble backing up the files to a CD and had only brought the laptop into the store so her "computer guy" could have a look at it.


"I was petrified I would get a virus or something and lose them," she said. "And then this happened."

Crain said she was uncertain how a thief found his way into the basement office from the sales floor, but that it was likely he came in during store hours and slipped unnoticed down the stairs.

"Still, it's not easy to get to. He would have to know what he was doing," she said.

She is hopeful he will find it in his heart to return the computer. In a letter she has posted on the shop window, she invites the thief to return to the store. There is a promise of a cash reward, no questions asked, and an invitation to "just sneak [the laptop] into the bathroom or something when no one is looking."

The computer was new and, aside from the pictures, also held valuable files pertaining to her business, which has been on Duane Street since 1990.

"But who cares about that. I just want the pictures back," she said. "If he can find a way to put those on a CD, he can keep the laptop."

The pictures range from her infant's first hours to snapshots taken just weeks ago with his grandparents in the Catskills.

"It's not as though he's 25," she said. "These are not the only photographs I'll ever have, so I'm trying to get over it."

In the meantime, her message and offer to the thief stands.

"Good karma will follow you if you return the laptop, or just the photographs," the letter closes. "I'm begging you, as a new mommy. Please."