NEW YORK (UPDATE) STOLEN COMPUTERS RETURNED NPM offer to thieves pays off - The York Daily Record:

NPM offer to thieves pays off
The company had its stolen computers returned after promising not to prosecute.
By JEFF FRANTZ
Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 07/01/2009 04:11:13 AM EDT

To read a previous story about this click here.

On Friday morning, after they found out burglars had stolen most of the computers from NPM Properties, the employees called every former co-worker, contractor or anyone who had ever spent significant time in their office.

The employees made it simple.

Eventually, they said, the police would figure out who shattered the back door of the East Market Street office and cleaned out sixcomputers , 12 monitors, a printer and a 47-inch plasma television. York is too small a community, and the company is too well connected, for the truth to remain a secret.

So, the employees said, if the loot is returned in a timely fashion -- say by Monday morning -- NPM wouldn't press charges or ask police to pursue an investigation.

The employees knew their jobs might depend on the success of their gambit. NPM was not insured. In addition to the cost of replacing the computers, the company would also need to replace client and market information stored on the stolen hard drives.

Company president and CEO Steve Norris said the company would persevere, but added it would likely have to downsize.

Monday arrived, and so did the gear. A property manager found it stacked at the back door, Norris said.

While employees plugged everything back in, Norris said, a security company measured for a new alarm system.

Except for a slightly pealed serial number on the television, nothing was

damaged, Norris said. The confidential client files -- a source of anxious calls and e-mails to NPM all weekend -- were intact.

Norris decided to put the offer out Friday because all signs suggested the burglar knew the office layout and how equipment was stored. He felt confident the police would have ultimately caught the thief.NPM, which rents out properties across the city, hears when things happen. Someone eventually would have tipped them off.

But, he said, the computers might have been moved or damaged by that point. The company might have already gone bust.

Now that business is back to normal, Norris said NPM will renew its insurance policy, which he didn't know had lapsed before the break-in.

Still, it's all unsettling.

What made it worse, Norris said, is knowing NPM was not picked at random. Even the call saying equipment was returned -- something that might save the business -- drew a mixed reaction.

"It was relief and anger all at the same time," Norris said. "I'm angry because I don't know who it is, but it has to be someone we called or someone who knew someone we called."

jfrantz@ydr.com; 771-2062