CONNECTICUT COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SCHOOLShore Line TimesThe stolen computers have a combined total value of between $13,500 and $14,400.


Madison police has recovered the nine laptop computers that disappeared from Daniel Hand High School in early March.
As of press time, no arrests had been made, but Det. Jim Daniels said he was preparing arrest warrants for five suspects and would likely apply for a warrant for a sixth.
Daniels would not reveal the names of the suspects, but said that they were all residents of Madison, and four were students at the high school.
The Gateway laptops had been stored in a storage cabinet secured by a combination padlock located in a school storeroom. When police initially investigated the theft, they found no evidence of forced entry either into the cabinet or into any room in the school, according to police reports.
After obtaining a list of possible perpetrators, police conducted interviews over several weeks. Police also scoured area pawn shops in search of the stolen items.
As the perpetrators became aware that they were prime suspects in the theft, they moved the computers to different locations on three separate occasions, police said.
Daniels would not comment on how the perpetrators were caught or how they committed the crime, which is a first degree larceny.
But Daniels said that through the perpetrators' statements, he and Officer Bryan Baxter were led to the final location where the computers had been hidden, outside of Madison town limits. Daniels said last week that he could not reveal that location.
"They were well hidden in the woods," Daniels said, adding that the computers were carefully protected and still in "fine condition."
The computers, valued at between $1,500 and $1,600 each, were being held as evidence at the police station last week.
A tenth computer, a desktop unit valued at approximately $1,300, was also reported stolen when the nine laptops were reported stolen on March 10.
That computer was reportedly stolen several weeks before the laptop theft but was not reported to the police until the theft of the laptops. Police are still investigating the theft of the desktop unit.