CALIFORNIA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY The Orion Online - Thieves snatch campus computersThieves snatch campus computers
Darcy Shepard
Staff Writer
February 02, 2005


A slew of on-campus burglaries have University Police searching for leads and computer equipment.

In the past two weeks, O'Connell Technology Center computer labs lost two keyboards with accompanying optical mice one night and a flat-screen monitor a few days later.

Robyn Hearne, sergeant of investigations for University Police, said Siskiyou Hall was also burglarized.

Upward Bound, which has a main office and computer lab in Siskiyou Hall, lost a 17-inch flat-screen monitor, two Mac towers, a server and most recently their two office computers.

Dave Ferguson, director of Upward Bound, said replacing the two office computers will cost $3,000, and it must be done immediately so staff can continue working.

"We're a grant program -- machines are hard to come by," he said.

Ferguson was able to move some older computers into the Upward Bound lab until funds are available to buy new machines.

After one of the break-ins, Ferguson said he and his staff noticed paint chips and a scratched lock on the door to the lab. He said thieves might have gotten in with a pocketknife.

Upward Bound took preventative steps, but still lost equipment.

"We cabled everything down (after the first break-in), and a couple of nights later someone cut the cables," Ferguson said. "We think they may have been planning on stealing more (computers) because they were all unplugged."

After the second lab break-in in December, a plate was put on the door, and the lab wasn't broken into again, Ferguson said.

Although the lab hasn't been broken into again, the office computers were stolen last weekend.

"Siskiyou's been hit twice in the last week and a half," Hearne said.

In one theft, Upward Bound's two office computers were taken. The other theft involved microphones and keyboards.

However, police believe they've recovered the microphones and keyboards because a janitor found a bag of similar equipment outside O'Connell Technology Center the night it was burglarized.

"(The thieves) probably put them in a bag and ditched it while they were doing something else," Hearne said.

The buildings show no signs of breaking and entering, and police have yet to review surveillance tapes from area cameras.

"We're not finding forced entry, per se," Hearne said. "That's one of the things we're looking at."

Hearne said even if there are no broken windows or locks, it doesn't necessarily mean it's an inside person.

"If you're good enough with lock picks, it doesn't have to look like (forced entry)," Hearne said.

Although employees have been arrested before for equipment theft, Hearne said there is no evidence so far to suggest employees were involved in the thefts.

"We don't have any reason to suspect that someone who has access to that room would be doing that. It's based on who would want the computers, and obviously that's a pretty wide range of people."

Police have yet to release how much the stolen property is worth.

"We're still putting the values together," Hearne said.

The department is also trying to pinpoint the times the burglaries occurred.

"We're a 24/7 campus, so we've got students who are in and out a lot who need to use the labs," Hearne said.

This isn't the first time this school year campus property has been stolen -- a series of burglaries in late fall remain unsolved.

"The thefts we had before Christmas break are very similar. The ones we've had since the semester has begun are also similar," Hearne said. "Whether or not we have two different suspects or two different groups of suspects is hard to say.

Campus police would not say whether there is a suspect in either case.

"It's not like we don't know anything," Hearne said. "It's just a matter of while it's being investigated, we won't want to point any fingers."

Darcy Shepard can be reached at

dshepard@orion-online.net