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15 laptops worth $25,000 stolen from Girard Academic Music Program magnet school

Fifteen netbook laptops worth about $25,000 were stolen from the Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP) school between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, Philadelphia police said.

Fifteen netbook laptops worth about $25,000 were stolen from the Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP) school between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, Philadelphia police said.

The computers were locked in a mobile cabinet designed to charge them overnight, police said. A padlock on the cabinet was cut, and the laptops and batteries were removed from the magnet school at 2136 Ritner St. between 10:30 p.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday. The thief broke into a classroom to get to the computer cabinet.

School officials reported the theft to police Tuesday.

"This is an ongoing problem where our schools are being targeted," district spokesman Fernando Gallard said.

This month, a fifth-grade teacher and her former husband were charged with stealing 42 laptops from the Ethan Allen School in Northeast Philadelphia and selling them to a Kensington pawnshop.

In the summer, a pair of thieves wearing dust masks stole $13,600 worth of computers from two city elementary schools by posing as painters.

Last school year, $615,000 worth of computers was stolen from the district, according to an internal document obtained by The Inquirer.

The district has taken steps to secure computers in rooms or locations with locks and has tried to make the public aware that the computers are tagged and may not be resold, officials said.

The district recently spent $7.5 million to upgrade and expand surveillance systems in 19 schools that officials decided needed additional safety supports or were on the state's "persistently dangerous" list under the No Child Left Behind law.

Although the equipment had already been installed, the School Reform Commission had not approved the capital outlay. It voted Wednesday to ratify an "emergency contract" already agreed to.

GAMP was not on the list of schools that received the equipment.

Gallard said there were no surveillance cameras in the area of the theft at GAMP.

The computers were used by sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, he said.

"The principal from GAMP told me it's something that will be difficult for them to replace," Gallard said.