While she certainly did not deserve to have her gear stolen, the impact it has on her is in large part her fault. If you are going be paid for your work, you have to take a reasonable level of precautions with your images.
A few years back when the business was really bad in my home country..
there was rumor of photographer being rob..
the trick is they contact the photographer for an out of town shoot. He bring most of the gears with him to do the job.. when he check in at the hotel that perpetrator booked for the photographer.. they wait for him to leave the hotel room, and rob most of the equipments.
If all my gear got stolen out of my car, It'd suck for a week while I was using my set of second and third backups (older gear, shittier lenses, etc...). Until the insurance check came in and I was busy buying all new gear.
I keep everything in the trunk and the trunk is not accessible (even from inside the car) without a key and if someone managed to break into that an alarm would sound.
And good lord, why on Earth would you ever travel with an archive that isn't backed up? That's just asking for trouble and disaster.