hard drive from retail external case was stolen-how to handle?

[cbelt3]

March back to the store and explain what you found, when, and how. Better to get it all out in the front. Oddly, returns people at retail get pretty good at telling when people are lying to them. Don't oversell your case- a clear statement of what happened, and your level of frustration will help. Pointing out that you use a Mac and have no dang use for an internal drive of that size might help.

Note also that it may technically be possible to trace the original owner of the IDE drive you found in there- point that out to Best Buy if they want to go all CSI on the case.