PENNSYLVANIA COMPUTER THIEVES AVOID JAIL The Sentinel Online : Local News Computer thieves avoid jail
By Eric Harkreader, Dec 29, 2005


A Cumberland County judge this week gave two former Shippensburg University football players a “break” with nearly four years of probation but no jail time for stealing computers and other items last January.
“You don’t have the luxury of other kids your age,” Judge Edward E. Guido told Theodore Lipford III. “If you get caught drinking and driving, you will go to jail on these charges.”Lipford, 22, formerly of Philadelphia, and Tyquan William Cooper, 21, formerly of Lancaster, were each sentenced to 23 months of supervised probation and 24 months in the county’s Intermediate Punishment Program for identical conspiracy to burglary and theft by unlawful taking.They had each pleaded guilty in August after they were arrested in January with a third man — former student Kenneth Earl Carter, 21, who was living with both men in an off-campus apartment.On Jan. 15, Lipford and Cooper took numerous laptop computers, digital cameras, textbooks as well as PlayStation units and accessories from two campus dormitory rooms and off-campus locations, court documents say.Five-figure lossesItems stolen from rooms in Naugle and McLean halls had a value of more than $10,000. The dorm rooms apparently were burglarized while the residents were present but asleep.
Police traced one of the stolen laptops to a resident assistant’s room in Harley Hall, where the laptop was reconnected to the school’s network. After the RA identified another student as using her Ethernet portal, police found Kenneth Earl Carter, 21, with one of the missing laptops and other missing items.Police then obtained a search warrant for Carter’s off-campus apartment and found the remainder of the items.At their attorneys’ pleas for leniency, an October sentencing date for both Lipford and Cooper was delayed to allow the men to show that they had moved on with their lives.On Tuesday, both men said they had done just that. They each said they had enough money with them to make full restitution.“I just want to say I’m sorry. I learned my lesson,” Lipford said.Moving on with livesHis attorney added that he earned all As and Bs as tourism and hotel management major at Harrisburg Community College during the fall semester. He had been accepted at Temple University starting this semester, attorney Geoffrey Seay said.Cooper, meanwhile, worked during the fall as a telemarketer and at a Boys and Girls Club, where he is currently the activity coordinator, his attorney said.Attorney Royce Morris also said that since that “foolish” weekend, Cooper had confessed to the crime, cooperated with investigators and paid off his debts with the help of his mother.Cooper was planning on attending Harrisburg Community College’s Lancaster campus this spring, Morris added.In explaining their light sentences, Guido said the two had come dangerously close to self destruction.“It didn’t ruin your life, but it could have,” he said.Both men’s standard range on the felony charge was six to 14 months.Carter, meanwhile, is at large after failing to appear for formal arraignment in October.