This unidentified bureaucrat didn't take home information on 26.5 million vets by accident. And I don't believe that someone "just happened" to break into the guy's house while the data was there.
After they fire this idiot, they need to keep tabs on his finances.
The real fault lies with the VA. Sound policies would prohibit storing of this data on a laptop in the first place. If he needs to work from home let him VPN in and work on the server. That can be done securely although it would be better to keep it on the closed internal network and not VPN.
Mostly likely this guy was just trying to get the work done and make the VA better for us. Unless he's been trained he probably never realized the risk he was taking with our information. Critical data should only be stored on a secure server and any connections to that server should be controlled.
Maybe I should call the VA and see if they want some help. :)
And they just happened to steal computer stuff...how much more work can a person do at home, with data on millions of people, that he can do at work?