MARYLAND COMPUTERS STOLEN http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/article_e6054804-e245-11df-80c0-001cc4c002e0.html

Laptops stolen from Union Bridge computer lab

Posted: Thursday, October 28, 2010 12:00 am

By Carrie Ann Knauer, Times Staff Writer | 4 comments

Police are investigating a break-in at the Union Bridge Community Center last week that led to the theft of two laptops used in the town's public computer lab.

Major Phil Kasten, of the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, said someone broke in to the computer lab overnight between Oct. 20 and 21 by breaking the glass out of one of the windows. The person or persons then broke into a cabinet that stored four laptops purchased through the Carroll County Public Library with donations by Bridges: The Union Bridge Youth Committee.

The stolen equipment is valued at more than $2,000, Kasten said. Sheriff's Office deputies and a crime scene technician responded to a call about the thefts late in the afternoon Oct. 21, and are now following up on leads from details at the crime scene and other information they have received.

Anyone else who has information about the break-in and theft is encouraged to call the Sheriff's Office at 410-386-2900 or the anonymous tip line at 888-399-8477, Kasten said.

Jaclyn Mathias, the executive director of Bridges, said the discovery of the theft has had a tremendous impact on her group.

"We're all pretty much devastated that we lost that much money," Mathias said of the value of the laptops. "We're kind of struggling now to make ends meet."

While four laptops had been stored together in the cabinet that was broken into, only two were taken, she said, as well as the power cords for all four computers.

She and the other volunteers who run the computer lab three nights a week at the Community Center feel uneasy, she said, believing the person who stole the laptops must have known how they were stored and most likely was a user of the computer lab.

The Bridges volunteers are no longer leaving the computer lab equipment stored in the Community Center, she said, but are passing them back and forth between the volunteers, which is difficult and time consuming.

"I don't want [the theft] to interfere with a program that has been very successful," Mathias said of the lab, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.

Another frustrating point in the theft is that these laptops would be virtually useless to whoever stole them, Mathias said. Because of the security programs installed on them by the public library, users cannot save any information on the hard drive and they are unable to visit websites that don't comply with the library's guidelines.

Mathias said Bridges does not have enough funding to purchase new laptops, so they are hoping the laptops will be found and returned to the organization.

"Union Bridge is a close enough community that eventually it's going to come out with who did this," she said.

Charges from this case include second-degree burglary, theft and malicious destruction of property, Kasten said.

Reach staff writer Carrie Ann Knauer at 410-857-7874 or carrie.knauer@carrollcountytimes.com.