NEBRASKA COMPUTERS STOLEN Thieves Take Sprinkler Company's Computers - Omaha News Story - KETV Omaha:

Thieves Take Sprinkler Company's Computers
System Had Some Personal Data Of Nature's Helper Clients

POSTED: 9:26 pm CDT April 30, 2009
UPDATED: 7:54 am CDT May 1, 2009

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OMAHA, Neb. -- The owner of a local sprinkler systems company wants his customers to know that thieves broke into one of his trucks and stole computers with customer information on it.

The computers had names, addresses and phone numbers but did not have credit card information.

Nature's Helper owner Howard Kucera said he doesn't think it's an inside job because the thieves left behind some of the most expensive parts, but he said he's worried about what the bad guys could do with what they did take.

Surveillance video of the burglary showed the thieves at Nature's Helper in west Omaha at about midnight on Monday.

"It's a truck scoping out our place," Kucera said. "He comes in and out seven times. When he leaves, you see my truck behind him. I was like, 'There goes all my stuff.' It's a little disheartening. I know all my parts are in there and all my computers and supplies."

He said watching the video of the theft only gets worse.

"They had that hole cut out, so you pull open the door," he said. "They knew what they were doing."

Once they got inside, they were stealing almost everything in the business, including a truck, a new desktop computer and four handheld units.

The handheld devices contain the addresses and phone numbers of most of Kucera's 2,500 customers.

"No credit card information is here," he said. He said that his workers don't keep credit card numbers after they process them.

Howard said he's still worried about his customers.

"What I'm real worried about this truck is that someone's going to show up to somebody's house and say they're Nature's Helper," he said. "If they rob my business, they have a chance of robbing their house. I can't stand that on my conscience."

Howard said the thieves also stole his new server, some expensive tools and parts for his sprinklers, losses that he said totaled "thousands and thousands of dollars."

He said the lost items can be replaced, but his reputation can't.

"It's a little sickening," he said.