60 computers worth $80,000 stolen from West Philadelphia High

Sixty computers worth about $80,000 have been stolen from West Philadelphia High School, district officials said Wednesday.

"This is a substantial loss for the high school on the technology side," district spokesman Fernando Gallard said. "This is something that is really going to hurt the high school."

Surveillance video showed three males in masks and gloves entering the school's Locust Street door at 1:50 a.m. Monday, police said. The theft wasn't reported until 6:50 a.m., and officials are looking into why it appears no alarm was triggered. Southwest detectives are investigating.

The robbery was one in a string that has plagued the district, which has lost hundreds of thousand of dollars in technology to thieves.

"It is a constant challenge for us because individuals do know we keep technology in our schools, and they are being targeted," Gallard said. "It's an ongoing battle."

The thieves took 58 laptops, two other computers, and an LCD projector from areas with physical and electronic security, Gallard said. The computers have ID tags and are labeled district property, he said.

In October, 15 netbook laptops worth about $25,000 were stolen from the Girard Academic Music Program in South Philadelphia. Also that month, a fifth-grade teacher and her former husband were charged with stealing 42 laptops from Ethan Allen School in the Northeast and selling them to a Kensington pawnshop.

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

During the 2009-10 school year, $615,000 worth of computers were stolen from the district, according to an internal document obtained by The Inquirer.