MASSACHUSETTS CASUAL THIEF STEALS COMPUTERS FROM OFFICES AT CABOT BUSINESS PARK The Sun Chronicle Online - News:

Police seeking 'casual' thief
BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Thursday, March 8, 2007 1:33 AM EST

MANSFIELD - The thief's MO is simple. Dress casually and walk into a company in a local business park, steal a laptop computer and walk out as if you were an employee.

That's what police say a man did recently in Cabot Business Park, as well as other industrial parks in Woburn, Lexington, Needham, Braintree and Weymouth.

"He walks in dressed in casual - normal business casual. He walks in casually. Takes what he wants to take and walks out," Mansfield Detective Michael Ellsworth said.

"He's definitely targeting commercial businesses during an hour where his presence would not seem out of character," Ellsworth said.

Some companies have been victimized more than once, and some of the thefts may have gone unnoticed, the detective said.

Three laptops valued at about $4,000 were stolen recently from a business in Cabot Business Park, which Ellsworth declined to name.

Ellsworth said the thief is believed to be the same man pictured in security videos at other companies.

Perhaps more importantly than the value of the computers, Ellsworth said the laptops may contain trade secrets or other valuable personal information that might be stored on the computers.

"It's an electronic wallet now," Ellsworth said of what laptops have become to many people.

Laptop thefts have become a growing national concern.

Investigators worried last August that thousands of bank customers might have had personal information compromised when laptop computers were stolen in Massachusetts from three managers of Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bank.

And in May, up to 26 million military veterans might have had personal information, including Social Security numbers, lifted when a laptopcomputer was stolen from the Maryland home of a Veterans Administration data analyst.

In the thefts from Massachusetts industrial and business parks, none of the stolen laptops have turned up yet at pawnshops.

Police believe they may have been sold to friends of the thief or on the street.

From surveillance tapes, police say the suspect is a black man, about 5 feet, 8 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with an average build and who appears to be in good physical shape.