Font ResizeBy Jack Minch
MediaNews
LEOMINSTER -- An innocent mistake cost Patty Sargent cherished keepsake photos of her ailing 2-year-old nephew.
Sargent went to Applebee's restaurant on North Main Street with her family and brother-in-law's family on Aug. 26.
They sat in a secluded corner booth. They paid the bill and left. Sargent's 14-year-old son walked backward out of the restaurant until she told him to stop horsing around before he hurt himself.
When they got to the parking lot, her son remembered he left his $219 Acer electronic tablet on the table and ran back inside, Sargent said.
"We went directly to our car, nowhere else. My son said, 'Mommy, I forgot my tablet,' " Sargent said Wednesday. "He ran inside and came back in tears. The tablet had been taken in a minute or two."
Sargent went back inside to search again and talk to staffers.
"Our dishes were still sitting on the table, other than his dish, which was sitting in the back of the booth, and my sister-in-law's dish," Sargent said.
Her son had been walking backward so he noticed nobody had followed them out of the restaurant, she said. A couple of days later, Sargent realized the Micro SD card from her camera was in the tablet and it had all her baby pictures of her nephew on it.
Restaurant manager Jeff Martynuska confirmed there is a $100 reward but had no other details.
Sargent is asking for the tablet to be returned to the restaurant or Leominster
"No questions asked," Sargent said.
