INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY COMPUTERS STOLEN Indiana Statesman - Computers stolen from admissions office at ISUBy Beth White
Indiana Statesman
March 17, 2004


Approximately $10,000 of computer equipment was stolen from the ISU's Office of Admissions over the weekend, said Bill Mercier, ISU's director of Public Safety.

Three computers and one scanner were stolen sometime between 4 p.m. Friday and Monday morning.

Office of Admissions Director Ron Brown said anything saved on the computers' hard drives would be lost.

"I don't think they [the perpetrator] would actually be able to gain access to what's on the hard drives," Brown said.

Brown said nothing of value is saved on the hard drives. He said mostly e-mail communications, form letter templates and forms for inter-campus documents were saved on them.

Brown doubted anyone would be able to gain access to the hard drives anyway because of passwords and codes.

Mercier said Public Safety is investigating a few leads. He would not release a copy of the police report because he said the investigation is still on going.

On the Public Safety Web site,http://www.indstate.edu/pubsafety/crimealerts.htm, a crime alert is posted regarding the recent computer thefts.

Mercier said a number of computers have recently been stolen on campus, but said he would have to do some research to get actual numbers.

The Web-site describes a suspect as a 6-foot-3 inch black male with black hair and brown eyes. The suspect is described as approximately 53-years-old with bad teeth and commonly posing as an ISU custodian, pushing a trash tote, and wearing a Facilities Management hat.

Public Safety requests anyone seeing a male fitting this description contact them as soon as possible by calling 237-5555 or 911. Do not approach him.