'LAPJACKERS' TARGET PORTABLE COMPUTER GEAR.

Byline: J. Peder Zane The New York Times

Scott Friedman, a motivational speaker from Denver, and Evelyn Barish, a professor of English from New York City, have never met. But they have more in common than they know.

They have both been lapjacked.

Last year, about 208,000 laptop computers were reported stolen, a 40 percent increase from 1994, according to Safeware, an insurance company in Columbus, Ohio. And, with laptop sales booming, experts expect thefts to keep soaring.

"Laptops are getting smaller, lighter and more powerful," said David Johnston, the chief executive of Safeware. "What makes them appealing to business people also attracts criminals."

Johnston said laptops had been stolen in almost every imaginable way. They are taken by gunmen and smooth-talking con artists. Muggers rip the carrying cases off people's shoulders, and employees pluck them from the desks of colleagues.

And some laptops are forgotten by their owners in restaurants, taxis and hotel rooms, and then are discovered by people who figure, "finders, keepers."

"A lot of business people treat their laptops like a piece of luggage instead of something that costs as much as their Rolex or diamond engagement ring," Johnston said.

Friedman said his computer was stolen last month in the Marriott hotel at the San Francisco airport, where he was giving a speech. He placed the black shoulder bag containing his laptop on a chair, then went next door to talk with the conference organizers. When he returned five minutes later, his $4,500 machine was gone.

"I thought I was in a safe zone," Friedman said, "but these days, I guess no place is safe."

Increasingly, thefts are occurring at airports, where the thieves practice variations on age-old pickpocket schemes and other con games, said Detective. Kevin Coffey, a Los Angeles police detective.

Thieves usually work in teams of two to six, Coffey said. Some teams are local, rotating among the airports in Los Angeles or New York. Others travel around the country.

"They like to target the international terminals because the travelers tend to be wealthy and they aren't so eager to press charges or return for a trial," he said.

In one scheme, a woman approaches a man waiting at the ticket counter. She starts a conversation or spills ketchup on him, anything to distract him to put down his laptop. During the hullabaloo, her partner swoops by, swipes the bag and skedaddles.

In another scheme, the thieves target a passenger who looks well-heeled and likely to have an expensive computer in a carrying case. As the mark approaches the line to have his carry-on baggage X-rayed, two of the thieves get in front of him. The first puts a laptop bag - like the one owned by the mark but filled with weights - on the conveyor belt. The second waits for the mark to put his bag on the belt before walking through the gate and purposely setting off the buzzers. While he makes a big production fiddling with his change and belt buckle, his accomplice steals the mark's bag.

Sometimes the criminals are more interested in the information in the computer.

"Industrial espionage is a growing problem," said Robert V. Jacobson, president of International Security Technology in New York. "People travel to negotiate a deal. They leave their laptops in their hotels while they get a bite to eat. When they return, it's gone. The next day, the people across the table have assumed the tougher stance of someone who has seen your cards."

The resale market for stolen laptops is rich and varied, said Bruce Toney, a detective in the high-tech unit of the Police Department in San Jose. Swap meets and flea markets, unscrupulous computer dealers and traditional fences all provide a market.

Many stolen laptops are sold through the Internet and overseas, where they fetch 25 percent to 50 percent of the list price. Toney said he had also discovered "chop shops," where the computers are cannibalized for memory chips, modems and other parts.

"The components have no identifying marks, so they are almost impossible to trace," he said.

Barish, a professor of English at the City University of New York's Graduate Center and College of Staten Island, said her life had been disrupted since her laptop was stolen from a hotel room in Brussels last month.

"I hadn't bought a machine in six years, so I was really starting from scratch. It was like trying to find an apartment in New York. I did nothing else," she said. "Then, once I found one, I couldn't run it. Windows 95 and all these other newfangled programs are far more complicated. I spent an hour and a half this morning trying to write and print out a one-page letter. And I'm writing a book!"

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Photo Evelyn Barish's laptop was stolen from a hotel room in Brussels. New York Times