ALABAMA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM BEST BUY Thieves take computers from store:

Thieves take computers from store

Burglars grab thousands of dollars' worth of laptops from Best Buy store in Spanish Fort

Tuesday, December 05, 2006
By MIKE PERRY

Staff Reporter

Spanish Fort police said thousands of dollars' worth of computers were stolen from a locked display case at the Best Buy store at the Eastern Shore Centre last week.

Burglars forced open the front doors of the retailer's Malbis location at about 3:25 a.m. Friday and stole several Sony and other brand laptops, Spanish Fort Police Chief David Edgar said Monday. Officers responded quickly to the alarm call, he said, but the burglars fled with the items before police arrived.

Edgar said he was not sure how many computers were taken, and he declined to provide an estimate of their value."

The case is being investigated as a first-degree felony theft, an offense that involves more than $2,500 of stolen items, he said.

"There were quite a few apparently," Edgar said of the electronic devices stolen.

He declined to provide additional details, referring further questions about the theft to Best Buy.

Store manager Trip Sullivan said the laptops, which cost between $500 and $2,000 each, were in a locked display cage near the front door. The thieves broke the lock off the cage to get to the computers, he said.

The store's video surveillance captured some of the crime, Sullivan said, and the tape was turned over to the police. He said the incident was a first for the Spanish Fort store.

"We have never been broken into before, not since we opened in June," Sullivan said. "I think it's terrible. I hate that it happened."

The store has "made some adjustments" to make it more difficult for such burglaries to occur, Sullivan said.

Spanish Fort Police will be stepping up patrols around the city's retail stores, Edgar said. The department's main offices are situated at the Eastern Shore Centre.