His laptop with 4 years of cancer research was stolen. Now he wants the city to take theft more seriously

A night out with co-workers quickly turned into a nightmare for a Western PhD student when four years of cancer research was taken from a colleague's car.

Aswin Sureshkumar's laptop and two external hard drives filled with data and scientific analysis were stolen from a car parked outside Palasad South at 141 Pine Valley Blvd. on April 21, between 5:30 and 9:30 p.m.

"I put my bag in the back seat on the bottom area and put my jacket over it just because you always hear about people breaking in," Sureshkumar said. "When I went back, the jacket was thrown to the side, my backpack was gone, and I was like, 'There's no way that this is happening right now.'"

"I just walked home in disbelief."

The day after the laptop was stolen, Sureshkumar filed an online report with London police, who he said followed up with him and worked on the investigation for about two weeks.

London police said there was no video surveillance in the area and no information on possible suspects.

"The investigation is final as there are no investigative leads at this time," said Sgt. Sandasha Bough. "If additional information becomes available, police will investigate."

It's still unclear how the thief got into the car, as there were no broken windows, and Sureshkumar's co-worker is not certain if she locked the door before entering the bowling alley.

Sureshkumar's backpack also contained his wallet, headphones and school supplies, but he is most worried about recovering the data.

His research focuses on analyzing a specific gene with the hope of learning more about how pancreatic cancer starts. By learning more about this, Sureshkumar said, it could lead to further research that will help with earlier diagnosis.

"[Pancreatic cancer] is very lethal because it's hard to diagnose initially, so a lot of people find it late," he said. "You only have a few months to live, typically."

All of Sureshkumar's research was backed up on the hard drives, which were also stolen, he said. While he still has access to some of the raw data and final results through emails he sent to colleagues, the majority of his research analysis will need to be redone.

"Research moves very slowly," he said, adding that it will take more than a year to redo the data and make it presentable, which will now stall any further research he planned to do.

"It would be a year of backtracking, which is a lot different than moving on and doing new experiments, which I was in the perfect position to do."

Sureshkumar said he is disappointed in the police's response and believes there is a general lack of interest in solving theft in London.

"[Police] just treat me like I'm one theft of many, but what they don't realize is that this theft will change my whole future," Sureshkumar said. "I could either be a cancer researcher, or maybe out of this field because of this one theft."

He said he wants the city to invest in theft-prevention measures, more businesses to have high-quality surveillance cameras and more Londoners to change their attitudes about theft.

"A lot of people are used to it," Sureshkumar said. "[People told me] 'I hope you get through this,' not even the notion of, 'I hope you find it.'"

That's why Sureshkumar is taking matters into his own hands.

He spent Sunday afternoon rollerblading around his downtown London neighbourhood, taping up more than 100 posters between Victoria Park and 100 Kellogg Lane, with a plea for help finding his items. He said he plans to post more posters closer to the theft site later this week.

"It's disappointing to realize just how bad the system is," he said. "I think if it just improved a little bit, a lot of theft would be avoided in the future because it just continues to grow."

Sureshkumar is currently taking a leave of absence while he decides whether he wants to return to his research or shift towards starting hands-on work in the industry.

Sureshkumar said he's learned a few different lessons from the experience, such as the importance of setting up tracking devices on his technology and using cloud storage, but said the most important thing he's learned is being resilient.

"I'm not saying that it doesn't affect me, but it's how I bounce back from it," he said.