MINNESOTA UPDATE ON RECENT COMPUTER THEFT AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL St. Paul Pioneer Press 01/10/2007 Anoka County St. Francis Junior High / School had a blind spot, and burglars found it:

Anoka County St. Francis Junior High / School had a blind spot, and burglars found it

St. Francis officials alter alarm-response plan
BY DAVE ORRICK
Pioneer Press

St. Francis Junior High School officials and police are working out a plan to avoid what happened shortly after Christmas: Vandals ransacked several rooms and stole about $40,000 in equipment while police checked the outside of the building and saw nothing.

The blind spot, it turns out, was that the intruders — at least two of whom are now in custody — scaled part of the two-story school and entered through the roof and an interior courtyard.

They tripped burglar alarms — twice — but each time police checked the exterior of the school, they saw no evidence of anything suspicious.

Meanwhile, intruders shuttled laptop computers to the interior courtyard, dismantled other computers for key components, ransacked the school library and raided teachers' personal items, including a digital camera and a DVD player, officials have said. It's unclear if the intruders knew they were in a blind spot.

'Our officer checked the building each time, but he just couldn't see the area where (the vandals) were,' St. Francis Police Chief Byron
Froh said Tuesday. "We're talking with school officials to see if there are things we can change so we can do this better in the future."

The Dec. 27 break-in became widely known last week, when the Anoka County sheriff's office said it had arrested two juveniles. One was a former student, but neither was enrolled at the school.

Principal Dale Johnson said officials already have made changes to their alarm-response plan.

"They'll go inside now," Johnson said. "The head of maintenance will help."

Johnson said the $40,000 price tag is "rapidly going down" as equipment returns to the school. He and Froh credited Anoka County sheriff's investigators with tracking down many of thestolen items.

Dave Orrick can be reached at dorrick@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2171.