TEXAS UNIVERSITY LAPTOP COMPUTERS STOLENUniversity Daily - Tech student arrested for attempting to steal software: " "by Michael Castellon
April 30, 2004


An alert student and the swift response of the Texas Tech Police Department likely played a part in the nabbing of a student who was allegedly in the process of stealing computer software from the Chemical Engineering computer lab and the subsequent recovery of more than $4,000 of stolen property.


Last week, Jackie Bell, a junior in the College of Human Sciences, was arrested in connection with the theft of at least three laptop computers.


According to police reports, Tech police responded to a call from a student who observed Bell asking a chemical engineering lab technician for a CD that was left in the CD-ROM tray of a computer in the lab. When the technician removed the CD, Bell advised the technician the CD was his.


"He was observed leaving, and someone thought the CD wasn't his," said Maj. Gordon Hoffman of the Tech Police Department.


The student observing the exchange knew all the students in his class that required the CD and the textbook associated with it, thus raising suspicion, police reports indicate.


Based on the knowledge that several CDs and the textbooks associated with them have turned up missing from students in the past, and that the books were not re-sellable to textbook stores without the CD, the student then detained Bell and called police, according to reports.


Tech Police officers arrived and arrested Bell on outstanding Lubbock Police Department and Lubbock Sheriff's Office warrants. A subsequent search of Bell's backpack, which was in his possession at the time of the alleged attempted theft, recovered three laptop computers, totaling a value of $4,200, which had been reported stolen to the Tech Police Department earlier. The laptops belonged to a faculty member, a university staff member and a student.


Hoffman said the incident has been turned over to the Lubbock District Attorney's Office.


"Everything was presented to the D.A.," he said. "Most of the cases like this, they take."


Bell could not be reached for comment