ROCHESTER LAPTOP THEFT ON THE RISEWOKR-TV 13 ROCHESTER || NEWSLaptop Theft


Kathy Kriz (Rochester, NY) 05/03/04 -- There has been a rash of laptop thefts in Monroe County. Local college students, it turns out, are more vulnerable to laptop theft than people who travel through The Greater Rochester International airport.

University of Rochester senior Jason Simmons thought his laptop was safe, in his locked college apartment. When a thief broke in, the electrical engineering student lost more than his $1,200 computer.

"I'm doing interviews now for jobs, and I had these projects on my resume and I can't show them, because they were on my laptop," he said.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office recorded just one laptop theft at the airport from last June to this past February. During that same stretch, laptop thieves stole from cars most often. Besides vehicles, they also concentrated on offices and colleges. They took nearly 60 laptops in all and that only includes areas without city or town police coverage.

Over the past three years, town police departments have recorded anywhere from one to 36 laptop crimes. However, Brighton has documented 125. Brighton police say they've seen an increase in office thefts, and attribute that to the lure of laptops.

Sgt. John Mallaber of the Brighton Police Department said, "We've got information now, that in addition to selling laptops whole, they're being disassembled and sold as parts…which would make it additionally lucrative."

Hotels are targets too. Police confirm somebody recently stole a few laptops from Brighton's Hampton Inn and Greece Police report thieves pried open a guest's door at the Greece Marriott, and swiped a laptop.

In February, officers charged a Rochester man with stealing a laptop from a Gates school; a security system tipped off police.

Monroe County Sheriff's investigator Sgt. Bill Flechaus said, "Mr. Washington's MO was to dress up, to wear clothing that might make him appear like he fit in at a school, or a business."

On a college campus, laptop thieves blend in by wearing a baseball cap, or carrying a backpack, pretending to be a student, while they scope out dorms, libraries, and offices.

Mallaber said they use the same strategy in offices.

"What we've found is that people are going into these areas, and actually mixing in with office personnel, cleaning personnel, maintenance personnel," he said.

RIT student Amy Christian says if she can't find anyone to watch her laptop, she'll take it with her, even to the bathroom.

"Most of the thefts occur when people leave their dorm rooms unlocked, when it's not attended. Like libraries, a big one. Like books, especially, laptops. If you leave them on a table in a library, they get stolen," she said.

The U of R's security director Walter Mauldin recommends tag-teaming with a friend, so a portable computer is always covered.

"Just as if you were out, say having dinner at a restaurant, and one of you had to excuse yourself for a few minutes…the other person would watch a coat or a satchel or a purse," he said.

David Dunning manages a computer store. He says laptop owner can buy a lock for their machine. One piece is inserted into a slot on the computer. That connects to a cable.

"You can take this particular cable, wrap it around an item, say a chair, a table, a bench…someplace in your vehicle if you want to," he said.

While the store manager admits the locks aren't completely thief-proof-they are a deterrent. The laptop locks can be tricky for thieves, because if they rip out the connection. The computer's innards are destroyed, making the laptop worthless.

Some office workers were so frustrated by two previous office thefts, Mark Haggett and a co-worker set up their own surveillance system using a $70 camera and a computer.

"After hours, we'd just set the camera to record. And come in the next morning, and if there was any activity, we'd see the activity noted in the files," he said.

On Halloween 2002, the camera finally caught the thief in the act.

"He was in here for about 45 minutes…it showed him picking up various pieces of equipment; actually using napkins to keep his fingerprints off of them," Haggett said. "He seemed to be almost a shopping trip. He was just…looking around the suite at all the different equipment trying to figure out what he could take easily."