Is this the dumbest cop story ever?

Sometimes a tech-related story comes along that just makes you shake your head. This is one of them. Here's the lowdown:

A high-ranking police officer in Montreal attends a party over the holidays. In his unmarked cruiser parked on the street outside, he leaves a bag containing a bunch of stuff, including a USB flash drive containing detailed information - names, home addresses, the works - on undercover police officers and informants.

You know where this is headed, don't you? Of course you do!

Sometime overnight, someone breaks into the car and steals the bag. As you can imagine, the drive is gone. We can safely assume the data on it wasn't encrypted, and we can safely assume someone's copying it onto a Dark Web server as we speak.

It took this long for the story to come to light because I'm convinced the police force was mortified that it happened in the first place. Oh, the lawsuits that are going to fly from this one.

I spoke with my colleagues at CJAD Montreal and they filed this story. I may have used a profane word or two when discussing it on the phone, as there's no excuse for this, especially from a cop who really ought to know better.

Unreal.