TEXAS COMPUTER STOLEN FROM WHITEHEAD MEMORIAL MUSEUMDel Rio News HeraldMuseum break-in investigated

By Bill Sontag
Del Rio News-Herald

Published December 28, 2005

An early morning theft from the Whitehead Memorial Museum left the landmark tourism destination with only one computer Tuesday after the thief apparently snuck into the visitor center, and lifted a Dell CPU (central processing unit).

The museum?s staff and Board Chairman Mike Parker were perplexed about many aspects of the machine?s disappearance, but Parker offered one conclusion: ?It?s someone who knows our routine.?

Museum Director Lee Lincoln was in Austin for the holidays when notified by the News-Herald of the investigation underway by the Del Rio Police Department.

Lincoln affirmed that she had not loaned or moved the CPU herself, leaving staff convinced that a theft had indeed occurred.

An administrative employee of the museum who called DRPD to report the missing computer requested anonymity, but said, ?It was so strange, because I really didn?t know what had happened when we noticed the computer was missing.?

Contributing to the confusion was the fact that only the CPU was taken.

The museum visitor center?s computer monitor, keyboard and printer were not taken, nor was the gift shop cash register, barely eight feet away from the missing CPU.

Parker said closer examination showed no apparent damage to exhibits, museum collections, or structures.

All staff reports are narrative, awaiting results of the investigation conducted Tuesday morning by DRPD Officer Ricardo Riojas.

Staff members said the theft apparently occurred between the time museum maintenance worker Tim May opened the building?s front door to gain access, locked that door, unlocked the building?s back door and left to resume work on the grounds.

In what museum staff estimate was little more than 20 minutes after May left the visitor center/office building, and the administrative assistant arrived, the thief entered through the back door, took the CPU and made off.

Riojas? report said the back door of the museum office building was the thief?s entry point.

Parker said the computer was used for various word and data processing tasks such as preparation of forms, documents, letters, development of Power Point? presentations, maintaining phone lists, E-mail correspondence and address lists, Roadrunner? Internet connectivity, and the most recent (Dec. 6) minutes of Whitehead Memorial Museum Board of Directors? meeting.

?It just baffles me why anybody would want the information on there, other than somebody just wanting a computer,? Parker said, shaking his head.

Parker said the museum?s records, kept in another building, would provide Riojas with the CPU?s serial numbers, product data, purchase price, and dates of purchase.

In addition, museum video security tapes were turned over to Riojas Tuesday for inspection.

Riojas reported that tapes from the museum?s security cameras show an individual wearing a sweater with a hood entering the front of the museum, and leaving through the back door during the time in question Tuesday morning.

The individual, according to Riojas, appeared to be carrying something that looked like a computer tower when they departed the building.

Wednesday morning, Lincoln was doubtful the thief could get information about museum business from the computer.

?That computer is password protected, so they?ll have to do a lot of hacking to see anything else on it. I think they just wanted a computer, so they?ll probably just wipe the hard drive clean,? Lincoln speculated