Here’s an interesting laptop theft. And for once, it’s GOOD NEWS! Well, mostly.

The Age reports that Lieutenant Commander Peter de Maskens of the Australian navy left his five-star hotel in Bangkok, the Banyan Tree Hotel, at about 2 a.m., and headed to the red-light district of Nana Plaza in Sukhumvit Road. He returned about an hour later accompanied by a Thai person. The officer was apparently a bit tipsy at the time and awoke to find his laptop, iPod, passport and credit cards missing.

But, in a refreshing twist of news, the Australian Defence Department says that the laptop was protected–outfitted with security software to deny access to the data, and that that data was only of the “lowest classification.” Does this mean it was encrypted, or is this the same situation seen day in and day out with “password protection” being touted as any sort of bona fide protection?

We don’t know. But I for one believe that, indeed, the machine was properly encrypted, and maybe even trackable, and thus this is actually a non-event…for once!