This “hard drive” was probably an external 1TB hard drive used as a backup. In other words, my unsophisticated guess is that the missing drive is THE backup drive. If that is the case, the original data could have been already erased and this was the only copy of the information left. So, this theft could be 1) an attempt to destroy the only copy of this information existing, or 2) an attempt to steal this information to use against someone (three guesses who, and the first two don’t count), or 3) some one of the many passerbys (read the AP article) saw an opportunity to steal a 1TB external hard drive to keep their movies and pictures on at home.

Somewhat OT:

As most of you may or may not know, the only truly secure way to purge the data from a complete disk drive is to drill a hole in each of the four corners of the drive, pour it full of gasoline, light it and then after the flames die down (and you beat out the fire on the living room floor), throw it into the deepest marsh that you have access to.