NEW JERSEY THIEVES LEAVE COMPUTERS BEHIND AFTER TRIGGERING MOTION DETECTOR ALARM AT SCHOOL North Jersey Media Group providing local news, sports & classifieds for Northern New Jersey!

Thieves flee School 27, leave computers behind

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

PATERSON -- Thieves ransacked classrooms and nearly stole several desktop computers from School 27 in the city's Hillcrest section, police said Monday.

At about 4:20 a.m. Monday, a motion-detecting security alarm inside a school stairwell tripped and alerted police. But by the time patrol officers arrived at the Richmond Avenue elementary school, the would-be thieves were long gone, Detective Lt. Don Giaquinto said.

The Paterson Police Department's crime scene unit swept the school for fingerprints and other evidence.

The thieves broke into eight classrooms and had nearly completed the burglary before police arrived.

Investigators discovered several computers, including monitors and keyboards, lined up near the stairwell where the alarm tripped. The stairwell leads to an exit.

Police had not yet determined how the thieves broke into the school, or if they were successful in stealing anything. There are no security cameras in the school, Giaquinto said. -- Ed Beeson