MICHIGAN LAPTOP COMPUTER THIEVES AND SECURITY ISSUESComputer crook and others are grabbing laptopsComputer crook and others are grabbing laptops

December 6, 2004


BY ZLATI MEYER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

He starts his day getting ready for work. He puts on nice clothing, sometimes even a suit, and grabs his computer bag. He's off to his job: stealing laptops.


TIPS TO PREVENT THEFT OF YOUR LAPTOP
At the office:

• Treat it like a purse or wallet. Never leave your laptop unattended.


• Buy a cable-lock to secure it to your workstation.


• Don't keep it near exterior windows available to passersby.


• Use an embedded tracking device.


• Beware of unknown people who slip into secured offices with employees.


• Lock it in a desk drawer overnight.

On the road:


• Don't leave your laptop visible through your car window. Hide it in your trunk.


• When in airports, make sure you go through security before it does. Sometimes, a thief will wait at the end of the conveyor belt to snatch it as you're still walking through the metal detector.


• In hotels, don't leave it out. Store it in a drawer.


• When away at school, lock your dorm room's door.


Sources: Safeware and Livonia Police Department


Since the end of August, southeastern Michigan's computer crook, who masquerades as a businessman, has struck numerous offices in Livonia, Troy, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills.


The well-dressed suspect walks into open businesses during the day or night, according to Livonia Detective Ron McPhee.


He carries an empty laptop bag, which he uses to smuggle the stolen computer out, and follows employees into secured office areas after they've swiped their access cards.


Police are familiar with the suspect, though McPhee declined to release his name. The man is described as 44 years old, 5 feet 8 and 160 to 170 pounds.


"He has been seen in office areas, acting suspicious, but unfortunately, people who'd seen that have never called police when it occurred," said McPhee. "We found it out later during the investigation."


Another unidentified man is believed to be responsible for a spate of smash 'n' grabs -- breaking a window to reach in and snatch a portable computer.


Across the country, according to Safeware, a Columbus, Ohio-based insurance agency that focuses solely on computer policies, an estimated 558,000 laptops were stolen in 2002. Even a U.S. State Department laptop, containing information believed to be highly classified, was filched in February 2000.

"Our society is becoming more of a mobile environment. More and more people are working from home, telecommuting. Schools are using more laptops," Safeware President Don Strejeck said. "With laptops being so small and mobile, they're very susceptible to theft. The users typically are careless. They leave it on a table in a room, leave it in the backseat of a car in plain view."


He added that this lackadaisical attitude, in part, stems from staffers who realize that their employers, not they, will eat the cost of the loss, and the growing number of college freshmen who are required by their schools to have laptops, usually bought by their parents.


This fall, investigators in Troy and Livonia sent out a special warning via local chambers of commerce.


"It would be akin to losing an appendage," explained Michele Hodges, president of the 800-member Troy chamber. "Although with Sept. 11, the business community is much more sophisticated about preserving intellectual capital and data ... . It could be anything from an inconvenience to having to restore the data to a catastrophic event."


She estimated that 50 to 60 percent of businesses use laptops, and they may contain daily calendars, contact lists, trade secrets and other operations information.


Strejeck advised putting laptops in less obvious places: "Use some sort of bag that doesn't say, 'Hi, I'm a computer,' that you can spot a mile away. What thieves look for is the hardware. They break them down for parts or resell them."


Anyone with information about the computer crook is asked to call the Livonia Police Department at 734-466-2470.


Contact ZLATI MEYER at 248-351-3291 or