ARIZONA ONE OF THREE COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SCHOOL RECOVEREDCasa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc.Stolen computer recovered

By PRESTON McCONKIE, Staff Writer, Coolidge Examiner March 16, 2005


One of three computers stolen from the Coolidge Community Center at 670 W. Pima Ave. was recovered last week, and a suspect has been identified in the four-month-old burglary case. A male juvenile reportedly brought the black Dell computer to Coolidge High School on March 9 seeking help from computer instructor Christopher Cassamus.

The boy, who is not officially suspected in the case, said he was given the computer by a man who is also a suspect in a Feb. 26 arson fire at the Coronado apartments. The boy was unable to use the computer because it was protected by a password, but Cassamus was able to overcome the security measures and access the machine's files. He reportedly observed content that led him to believe the computer might belong to the community center.

At that point Cassamus passed his observations on to staff of the Parks and Recreation Department, according to Tyron Jackson, who works at the community center. Police were notified and contacted the juvenile at his home on Elm Avenue March 9. Investigators seized the computer, then showed it to city IT Technician Matt Spitz.

"The computer the police put in front of me does in fact belong to the city of Coolidge," Spitz said. He gained access to the computer's files using a city password and found documents, spreadsheets, graphics and other data files belonging to Jackson, who works out of the community center at 670 W. Pima Ave. where the thefts occurred. The computer was also still registered to the city.

At the time of the thefts, Jackson had said the worst blow to the center was loss of the data on the computers.

After confirming the data files were safe on the recovered computer, Spitz said, "I'm happy because the files on it are really important. They're the stuff Parks and Rec used for their daily work."

Jackson said the computer was still being held as evidence, but hoped in the meantime he would be able to download the data files.