NETHERLANDS ANTILLES COMPUTERS STOLEN http://www.thedailyherald.com/news/daily/k260/burglaries260.html

Burglars hit businesses in town, Pointe Blanche
PHILIPSBURG/POINTE BLANCHE--Burglars were at work over the long Easter weekend, breaking into at least six businesses, including a casino, a network security firm’s office and a lawyer’s office.

In the four “off-days,” burglars broke locks, vandalised expensive office space and stole several computers from two different locations in Philipsburg and Pointe Blanche, leaving offices in a dismal state.

The N.C. Wathey Building on Ground Dove Road in Pointe Blanche was broken into and at least five of the suites were raided some time between Friday and Sunday, the owners told The Daily Herald. The Windward Islands Bank (WIB), SecureTech International (STI) and Cardinal N.V. offices were all broken into, this newspaper understands. Unofficial reports stated that Atlantis Casino in Cupecoy had been broken into on Friday.

The offices of Fox & Associates on Emmaplein were also broken into, with lawyer Stephan Fox losing at least four laptops containing client data and personal business data. The attorney said the information could not be used to harm him or his clients, as the machines were password-protected.

The burglars torched the base of a safe belonging to Fox’s former partner, leaving the scattered innards of the metal box strewn on the floor with the safe itself lying on one side. “I don’t know what was in it, it belonged to a former partner,” Fox explained as he went through his building Monday afternoon. The burglars left a square hole in the base of the safe.

The thieves apparently climbed up a “staircase” of air-conditioning unit compressors outside the building and entered the building from the back, sliding open a glass window to get in. Inside the offices apparently used to enter, the contents of a wall-unit containing files and folders were spilled out onto the floor.

On the way to the black safe lying in an adjacent room with the door left hanging open, an empty biscuit wrapper was left on the floor and crumbs made a trail to it. “They even had time to eat biscuits,” one observer commented on a quick tour through the building.

At the time The Daily Herald was present on the scene, investigating officers had not yet shown up.

The Cardinal N.V. representative, who asked not to be named, said his suite in Pointe Blanche had been severely vandalised and he had lost a laptop computer during the burglary. Several walls were broken as burglars forced their way into the N.C. Wathey Building and ransacked suite after suite.

One of the tenants of the building, Network Security firm SecureTech International (STI), was hit hard. CEO Gregory Richardson said STI had suffered some material damage and had lost machines in the burglary.

“[The damage] was very significant, and while no client data was stolen or otherwise compromised, … the company’s equipment and facilities have suffered quite extensively,” Richardson wrote in a statement to this newspaper. “Files and paperwork were strewn throughout the office, tools and company equipment were stolen and the office was ransacked, which will require precious man-hours and resources to put back together.”

He was particularly disturbed by the police response to the incident, which he called “lackadaisical” and said rang of a “lack of urgency.” “For example, the robbery occurred somewhere between 1:00 and 4:00am. The police didn’t show up until 7:00am and left without taking any pictures, fingerprints or anything else,” said Richardson. “Only after 9:00am were they back on the scene to begin their investigation.”

The police report Monday did not include any of the robbery reports.

Apparently, the building, which has a warehouse on the ground floor and the office suites upstairs, was being guarded on-site by officers of a local security firm and had electronic off-premises monitoring by another firm, neither of which deterred the criminals or even stopped them from breaking in – an action tenants suggested must have been loud and attention-grabbing.