My laptop got stolen

Hi, I’m Hannah and I’m a freelance journalist in London. I’ve written more than 200 pieces in Deadline, Business Insider, Variety, NME, GRAMMY and more, most of them spotlighting talent from underrepresented communities. In December my contract ended and I haven’t had a job for two months. Since then I’ve been living solely on savings and furiously applying to jobs and pitching more pieces to no avail. Today, my laptop, my primary source of any income at all, got stolen while I was eating lunch in central London.

I have CCTV footage showing a man walking in, loitering for a while, sneaking my bag away from the floor where it was near me, opening the zipper, taking out the laptop, and walking away after transferring it to his backpack. I filed a complaint to the police but they just made me fill an online form and go home with no further questions or help. I don’t have any money left to replace my laptop.

My computer was a MacBook M1 with 16 GB RAM. Apple does not manufacture that model anymore, and the cheapest MacBook currently available is £1000.

Please please consider donating if you are able – there are so many more pressing causes on here but I would appreciate any help at all.