My brother actually laughed at dinner and said, ‘I sold that useless laptop of yours for five hundred bucks. Finally got rid of your junk.’ My cousins cheered him on. Then he added, almost proudly, ‘Already handed it off to the buyer.’ I got up, stepped outside, and called my supervisor. By the time I made the report, the FBI cyber team was already tracking the device…
One agent stayed behind and took my statement in the dining room. He asked for timeline, device designation, storage procedure, residence security, last authenticated use. I answered the way I had been trained to answer: clean, precise, without drama.
When he finished, my mother looked at me with tears cutting down her cheeks.
