PENNSYLVANIA COMPUTER THEFT AT MONROE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLThe Sentinel Online : Local News Districts want equipment back
By Tatiana Zarnowski, January 7, 2006

School went smoothly at Monroe Elementary School Friday.

Teachers whose computers were taken during Thursday’s heist used loaners from elsewhere in Cumberland Valley School District, officials say.

Principal Darrin Feerar greeted students as they entered and psychologists were available, but no kids appeared to be upset, says Assistant Superintendent Mary Riley.

In addition to the stolen computers, officials also discovered several digital cameras were stolen. “Some may have been the district’s, some may have been personal,” Riley says.

She didn’t yet know whether police recovered the cameras.

Laptop and desktop computers stolen from Monroe early Thursday morning were worth between $40,000 to $50,000. Riley says the burglarized equipment included 30 to 40 laptops and four or five desktop computers.

The district also will have to pay to repair damage done to the building during the break-in.

Security system tip-off

The sophisticated security system that tipped off police that someone might be in the building was installed five years ago at Monroe and other buildings in the district, Riley says. Some buildings had security as long ago as 20 years.

Riley says Monroe had problems with graffiti artists painting the outside of the building but officials can’t recall the school ever being burglarized in the past.

Two men were charged Thursday with stealing the equipment and a third is in Hershey Medical Center after troopers shot him when he allegedly tried to flee in a police cruiser.

Anthony “Tony” Lee Wilson, 21, of the first block of West Main Street, Newville, and Troy Alpine Wenger Jr., 24, of the 9000 block of Path Valley Road, Fort Loudon, Franklin County, face seven charges: burglary, criminal mischief, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, resisting arrest and fleeing to elude police. Each is being held on $250,000 bail.

Police say the third suspect, 25-year-old Juan Carlos Samayoa of Chambersburg, will not be arraigned until he is released from the hospital.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Wilson acknowledged taking part in a number of Cumberland County computer thefts, including heists at Big Spring School District’s Newville, Plainfield and Mifflin elementary schools, the former Big Spring High School and Big Spring Middle School and Carlisle Area School District’s Hamilton Elementary.

The documents say Wenger admitted he was a lookout in some of the break-ins, including one at Grandview Elementary School in Chambersburg Area School District. The documents also say Wenger claimed the scheme was Wilson’s idea and he reconditioned the computers so Wilson could resell them. Wilson said the thefts involved projectors, desktop computers, monitors and digital cameras, among other items.

School officials hopeful

Officials at Big Spring and Carlisle Area school districts are hopeful they might get some of their equipment back.

“We’re ecstatic” after hearing news of the arrests, Big Spring Superintendent Richard Fry says. “There’s a tinge of sorrow as well. One of the accused is a graduate.”

Wilson graduated from Big Spring in 2003.

Fry hopes to recover some of Big Spring’s lost equipment, which included computers, smart boards and servers. If these are recovered, the district will need to determine what’s been “compromised from a data standpoint.”

Student data, such as progress on a computerized reading program, was stored on some of the stolen equipment, Fry says.

“We’ve been trying to plug holes,” he says. “Specifically at Plainfield and Mifflin, we’ve been operating on less than a full tank in regards to data. ... The effect this has had on the district, people have no idea. We’re very happy we can get back to a normal kind of business.”

Trooper Jackie Capriotti confirmed that two search warrants carried out Thursday in Newville and Chambersburg yielded computer equipment stolen in robberies at Newville Elementary School and Big Spring Middle School.

“They have found various laptops, towers, monitors and other smaller items like keyboards,” she says.

The search warrants Thursday were for Wilson’s residence in Newville and Wenger’s residence in Fort Loudon.

The computer equipment recovered by troopers has not been inventoried and no dollar amount is known, Capriotti says.

Carlisle Superintendent Mary Kay Durham says she hasn’t heard from police whether they have recovered any of the equipment stolen from Hamilton Elementary School during Christmas weekend.
Security beefed up

She says Hamilton was operating with “limited” security when it was burglarized because, with renovations at the school, “people were coming and going” at all hours. After the thefts, the district beefed up security.

When renovations are finished, a complete security system will be installed, Durham says.

The thefts also led to upgrades in Big Spring’s security.

“Just the way we go about our physical checks (of buildings) has changed,” Fry says.

Security systems recently were purchased for Newville and Plainfield elementary schools. Officials had been looking at security upgrades at the two schools but the $14,274 upgrades were completed sooner because of the thefts, Fry says.

— Sentinel Reporters Linda Franz and John Hilton contributed to this report.