TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SUFFERS $40,000 LAPTOP THEFT Brownwood Bulletin
By Steve Nash -- Brownwood Bulletin
Twenty-five laptop computers valued at about $40,000 were taken in a break-in at Brownwood High School sometime Monday night or Tuesday morning, school district officials said.

Principal Steve Gast said he did not believe authorities had any leads Tuesday afternoon. The school resource officer, Brownwood police officer Scotty Burke, was preparing a report on the crime, Gast said.

An employee arriving for work discovered the break-in a little before 7 a.m. Tuesday, Gast said.

"It is frustrating, and it is discouraging," Gast said. "I'm sick to death that it happened. It's a crime against our kids."

Gast said the laptops were part of a mobile computer lab that can be moved among classrooms in the school's English wing. The lab was in an English classroom when the break-in occurred, and no other computer equipment was taken, Gast said.

Kevin Gabaree, the district's director of finance and personnel, said the someone broke a window to get into a hallway, and then broke another window to get into the classroom with the computers.

The district bought the computers this school year with grant money, Gast said