SANTA BARBARA UCSB UNIVERSITY LAPTOP COMPUTER THEFT ISSUE Daily Nexus Online :: IVFP Battles Increasing Crime Rates

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McKinny said residents reported 148 burglaries in 2003. In at least half of those cases, a laptop or digital camera was among the items stolen. This year, 54 burglaries had been reported to the foot patrol as of April.

"We're talking a lot of laptops," McKinny said. "We don't often get burglaries as they're happening, but the more brazen [thieves] get and the more cooperation we get from the community, once we stop a group, we're pretty good about clearing previous cases."

In one such instance in February of this year, alert residents tipped police to a burglary in progress on the 6600 block of Sabado Tarde Road. Officers arrested two men in possession of some stolen computers. One man admitted to committing around 50 similar burglaries in I.V. A search of the man's Los Angeles-area home recovered over 40 computers and other electronic items stolen from I.V.