CALIFORNIA COMPUTER THEFT SUSPECTS CAUGHTTeens accused of trying to sell stolen computersTeens accused of trying to sell stolen computers
Two PVP High students allegedly tried to profit by posting equipment worth $30,000 on eBay.
By Larry Altman
Daily Breeze

An alleged plot by two Palos Verdes Peninsula High School students to profit from the theft of $30,000 worth of computers stolen from a classroom was thwarted when a teacher found the equipment for sale on eBay, sheriff's deputies said Thursday.

Andrew Hun Kim, 18, of Rancho Palos Verdes and Nicolas Pisar, 18, of Redondo Beach were arrested Tuesday. Investigators recovered the stolen computers and monitors from a storage facility in Torrance before any were sold, Lomita sheriff's Detective Chuck Braden said.

"They were good students supposedly," Braden said. "They've never been arrested before."

The break-in at the Rolling Hills Estates campus occurred about 1 a.m. Saturday. Someone jimmied the lock and entered the classroom, taking 10 Macintosh G5 computers.

"They are nothing like you and I would buy for a home computer," Braden said. "They are the stuff like Disney or Pixar uses for animation."

The computers are used in a special video animation course that began in September.

A teacher discovered the theft later Saturday and, knowing they could not be sold easily at a pawn shop, checked eBay. Eight computers were for sale by a seller from Rancho Palos Verdes, Braden said.

"They were on the Internet by 5 p.m. Saturday for sale," Braden said. "The starting bid was $800 each and they also had the monitors, which were nice plasma screen monitors with starting bids for $400."

Detectives on Monday sought the identity of the seller. Investigators pulled Kim out of class, questioned him and arrested him Tuesday.

An investigation led to Pisar and the recovery of the computers. Although some received eBay bids, none were sold.

"We got all of them back," Braden said. "The computers are back in the classroom."

Kim and Pisar were arrested on suspicion of burglary and booked at the Lomita jail.

Each was released on $20,000 bail.

Neither student was in the animation class. Each was suspended from school and is facing expulsion, Principal Kelly Johnson said.

Johnson said his reaction to the crime allegedly committed by his own students was "disappointment and anger." He credited teacher Alan Evans with helping to solve the case.

"The teacher gets a gold star," Johnson said.

"The teacher looks on eBay and, lo and behold, that was our stuff."

The burglary comes more than a month after a similar theft at the school. Braden said someone broke a window and removed 10 Dell computers worth $10,000, though Johnson put the price tag higher.

Those computers were believed to have been sold, and detectives said Kim is under investigation. No charges were filed in that crime.