AUSTRALIA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLeden.yourguideSchool pleads for stolen computers back
Thursday, 20 May 2004

The theft of six portable computers from Eden Public School in late April has severely disrupted students' education and the public's help is needed to find the machines, principal John Walker has said.

Mr Walker said the school was unable to afford to replace about $16,000 worth of stolen computers, cameras, other equipment and goods, stolen from the staffroom on Tuesday, April 27.

So far, the NSW Government's insurer, the Treasury Managed Fund, has refused to pay the primary school's insurance claim because a staffroom door may have accidentally been left open, Mr Walker said.

Mr Walker has now appealed for public help to recover the stolen equipment as the police have so far been unable to catch the thief or thieves.

"These are very significant losses," Mr Walker stated.

"At this stage we are unable to replace them because they are not in our budget."

Staff had used the portable computers in classrooms to create networks so students could work together in groups.

The loss of the computers had made it very difficult to hold lessons with the few remaining machines, Mr Walker said.

The school had planned to carry out the Basic Skills Tests in June on line using the laptops but students may now have to sit the examination at Eden Marine High School if it can accommodate them.

A program for gifted and talented students had been cancelled because of the theft, he said.

Mr Walker has released a list of the stolen equipment with serial numbers so people who see the computers or who are offered them for sale can identify them.

Missing are five Macintosh iBook laptop computers and an IBM laptop computer.

The iBooks each have a white cover and a number written in green indelible pen surrounded by a freehand looped circle that resembles a cloud.

Each of the computers also carries indelible microscopic dots that each bears the school's identification number, painted on an inconspicuous place.

The dots can be read under a blue light so the machines can be identified.

The serial numbers of the missing computers are No 1, EPS accession number 200072, serial number UV14916ZLPX; No 3, 200074, UV14917VLPX; No 4, 200075, UV14917BLPX; No 5, 200313, UV31628HMRR; No 9, 200317, YM305JLFNU6; No 10, 200318, YM305JK1NU6.

Also stolen was a digital camera, 2000064, 1410736; a starting pistol, printer cartridges, 10 Macally Mini Mouses, USB for Macintosh; a cheque book, egg money, petty cash, biscuits, and rechargeable batteries.

Some of the computers had red and blue carry bags.