NEW JERSEY SCHOOL THAT WAS ROBBED OF COMPUTERS VANDALIZED AGAINSaipan TribuneSAIPANTRIBUNE.COM
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Local
'DES burglars are teens from neighborhood'

By Marconi Calindas
Reporter

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Last week's burglary at Dandan Elementary School was most probably the handiwork of teenagers from the neighborhood, according to school principal Jonas Barcinas.

Barcinas told Saipan Tribune yesterday that the Department of Public Safety told him that they already have suspects in the case but could only describe them as teenagers that live within the vicinity of the school.

He said, though, that the police will not disclose the identities of the suspects yet.

Barcinas said the police had asked him to furnish them copies of the inventory of the school materials and equipment that were allegedly stolen.

Barcinas told DPS that he would convene his teachers today to finalize the list of stolen school properties. So far, only DVD players and VHS players were reported stolen from the school, he added.

According to DPS spokesman Eric David, they could not divulge the identity of the suspects yet as he has to validate them first with his office.

Thirteen DES classrooms fell prey to burglars two Sundays ago, making the school the fourth one to be burglarized on Saipan in a span of a month. The burglars entered three rooms of the 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders and two rooms of the 3rd and 1st graders through the back windows, which were smashed open and the grills removed. Debris was found scattered all over the backyard of the rooms for 6th graders.

Barcinas said the school's security guard discovered the burglary around 6:15am of June 27. He said they immediately called DPS, which responded and checked the school at 7am.

Two yellow desk chairs were found at the backyard fence of the school near the kindergarten building. Some food wrappers were also scattered near the area. Barcinas said the burglars might have climbed the chairs to get into the school.

The burglars did not spare even the restrooms of the school as profanities were found spray-painted on the doors of the toilets. He said earlier that there were no laptops and computers taken since the new sets of computer equipment that were supposed to be distributed to the classrooms last month didn't push through.

Barcinas said the school has only one security guard, which the Public School System hired last year. The security officers are subcontracted from EGO Security group. The guards have been assigned to watch the school from 7pm to 7am from Monday to Friday and 24 hours during weekends.

The guard on duty at the time when he did his rounds at 1:30am said he saw three young boys roaming outside the school's premises.

The guard said he usually does his rounds every hour but the culprits still managed to sneak in. Barcinas said he asked the guard how the burglars could have broken into the 13 rooms without him being alerted by the commotion.

Barcinas said he mandated the guard to be visible within the school premises at all times, making sure that the school is safe.

Barcinas said DES was burglarized two years ago, losing a digital camera, a video camera, and desktop computers.