ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA COMPUTER HARD DRIVES AND MEMORY STOLEN FROM SCHOOL http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=281935077507132005&an=331403086406132006&ac=Local


Sunnyside robbed, vandalised
Tuesday June 13 2006
by Nikisha Smith

For the second time in two weeks, the Sunnyside Tutorial Primary School has been the target of a theft, this time leaving the school’s computer lab in shambles.

On 2 June a classroom, the staffroom, the computer lab and the canteen were broken into. A DVD player, a VCR player, a television, food and drinks from the canteen were all stolen.

Yesterday, Principal Howard Warner and his staff discovered that the school was broken into again. “They went back into the computer lab and just destroyed all the computers,” he said.

Warner said the thief/thieves climbed unto a tank at the back of the hall and tore through the top window, then pried their way past the steel gate to get to the computer lab.

Sunnyside’s computer science teacher and technician, Sylvester Francis, estimated that the damage and loss amounted to about $10,000. The thief or thieves made off with the hard drives and memory/mother boards of nine of the 15 computers. The cases of the gutted CPUs littered the floor of the computer lab.

Francis said the crime indicated that the thieves knew something about computers, but not a lot, just enough to know what was valuable.

“They must not have any value on education; that bothers me. How are you going to tell me that you are targeting a school?” a baffled Warner questioned.

Warner said this second theft was going to put the school behind. His records, some of the teachers’ tests and examinations were taken with the hard drives and some of the children would not be able to do their practical computer technology exams.

The principal has no clue as to who could be targeting them and the police have also not come up with any leads.

Food, which was taken from the canteen, include hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks and paper plates, which Warner believes would be sold on the street.

Warner said they were still suffering from the loss of the first set of items.

The principal said as a result of the double attack they would be arranging security for the school, which he believed was always vulnerable because of its isolated location in Paynters.

Warner said the school welcomes any assistance from the community for the computer lab. Because of their programme, he said the computers would have to be replaced for the next school year. Increasing school fees was not an option being discussed.

Investigations are still ongoing.