TEXAS COMPUTER THEFT REPORT FROM POLICEBrownwood Bulletin
Teen arrested in computer thefts

By Steve Nash -- Brownwood Bulletin
Brownwood police acted on a tip Wednesday and recovered 14 of the 25 laptop computers that were stolen in an April 19 burglary at Brownwood High School. A 16-year-old boy has been charged, police said.

Brownwood Police Chief Virgil Cowin said the investigation continues and has expanded to include a burglary in south Brownwood Tuesday afternoon in which a desktop computer was taken.

The juvenile who was charged was already in custody at the Brown County juvenile detention center as a runaway when a "concerned citizen" called police about some items that had been left in the caller's possession.

Officer Duane Fuquay went to a north Brownwood apartment to investigate, and the laptop computers, valued at $15,000, were found, Cowin said.

Police and school officials said someone broke a window in the school's English wing and then broke another window to get into a classroom, where the laptops, which were part of a mobile computer lab that can be moved among classrooms, had been kept. A school employee arriving for work shortly before 7 a.m. on April 20 discovered the break-in, officials have said.

The district bought the computers this school year with grant money