Memorial University student's laptop containing master's thesis stolen

It's not a case of the dog eating your homework, but one student at Memorial University has lost his master's thesis — along with the laptop it was stored on.

Mark Colbourne, a 27-year-old graduate student studying geology and geophysics, said his laptop was among a few things stolen from his shared office at MUN's St. John's campus.

The computer contained Colbourne's master's thesis that focuses on tectonics of the eastern Mediterranean.

"As I was taking off my book bag and my jacket, I realized that my desk looks a little funny, there's something off kilter here. It took a minute or two, actually, to process that my computer wasn't on my desk and my drawers were ajar," he told the St. John's Morning Show.

"Then that moment of dread hits and your stomach drops."

It took him more than eight months to write the thesis.

Shocked to find computer missing

Colbourne shares an office containing seven or eight cubicles with other grad students in the university's Earth Sciences Building.

His items were stolen from the office some time between March 2 and 3.

That moment of dread hits and your stomach drops.- Mark Colbourne

"Two of my officemates ended up leaving around the same time Wednesday evening, and through miscommunication and natural accident, left the door open thinking the other person was still there," he said.

"When we arrived the next morning, we realized that I had lost my computer and my external hard drive, among other things."

Colbourne said he got to the office at about 11 a.m. and was shocked to find his things were missing.

$1,500 reward 

At first, Colbourne hoped it was a bad joke, but when he realized the items were gone, he alerted campus security.

Colbourne is also offering a $1,500 reward for the laptop, contents of the laptop or the external hard drive.

The computer is a 2009 MacBook Pro that Colbourne said isn't worth much, but the reward reflects the time and energy he spent writing the thesis. 

Colbourne said he did have a copy of the thesis on Dropbox, an online file hosting service, but had since removed it to make room for other files.

Dropbox has a 30-day recovery, but Colbournce said he has passed that point and the thesis now can't be recovered.

Anyone with information about the stolen laptop and external hard drive can contact Colbourne via email.