the facts are that very few burglaries are solved by investigation at the home or business. Fingerprints aren’t always readable and may not be checked unless the city has some very expensive auto-comparison compututers like you see on the cop shows and CSI. In most cases it ain’t happening.
Professional burglars know the ropes and wear rubber gloves which just leave a smear. And very few people have all the necesssary serial numbers to identify their stolen items. It sounds like your friend has no way to identify her laptop except by Brand and Model. typical of all of us who think it won’t happen to them so the burglary detail can’t even locate it at a pawn shop if they make the rounds with lists of stolen items.
Some cities have realized that their police can be better used in other ways than doing ‘investigations’ that aren’t going to produce anything. (traffic ticket patrol makes a very nice profit for the city) They will only take a phone report for your insurance company purposes.
She does have the serial number for the laptop.