Today’s safety tip: Keep your laptop within leg’s reach while sleeping.
Amy Windom, 39, of Atlanta, can tell you all about it. She was tied to her bed’s headboard by an armed burglar who ransacked her house, stole electronics and took her car. He did not, however, take her work notebook.
Windom told Meredith Vieira of the Today show this morning that she convinced the burglar to leave the notebook by telling him, “That’s an AT&T laptop. I wouldn’t take it if I were you. It’s got a tracking device .”
He left it at the foot of her bed. After struggling for some time to free herself, she realized the computer was there and used her feet to pull it within reach.
Windom used the tip of her laptop’s power adapter cord to hit the right keys, first sending an e-mail to her boyfriend and then sending him an IM for help. He called the police, who arrived quickly.
In the video above, she demonstrates exactly how she typed out a virtual cry for help.
Her boyfriend praised her cleverness and cool head, but Windom really appreciated her feet and toes.
“I don’t have the world’s prettiest feet, but I think I’ll keep them,” she told Today. “They came in pretty handy.”