According to a spokesperson , on January 8 , the billing manager took a laptop home with her , with permission . But on the way home , she stopped off to visit an ill friend for 10 minutes , leaving the laptop on the front seat of her locked car . In that short timeframe , someone smashed the window of the car and stole the laptop . The theft was reported to the organization on January 9 . UHCS reported the theft to the police and even hired a private detective to try to recover it . As of today , however , the laptop has not been recovered . Frustratingly for everyone , that laptop had password protection but no encryption as it was one of the last remaining laptops scheduled to be updated to add encryption . It took the agency time to compile exactly what information was on the laptop , but using a roaming profile , they were able to determine that data on clients going back to 2002 were on the device . For some clients , the information may have been just a name and address , while for others it may have been name and date of birth , or name and Social Security number . According to the spokesperson , there were very few diagnostic codes or treatment service codes on the laptop . All told , records on 1,318 United Home Care Services of Southwest Florida clients and 12,299 clients of United HomeCare Services , Inc. were on the stolen laptop The 13,617 affected clients were sent a notification letter in February in compliance with Florida ’s privacy rule that requires notification within 45 days . On March 8 , they were sent a second letter to comply with HIPAA . ;