Thieves steal 60 computers from Phila. high school

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 captured three males in masks and gloves entering the school at 1:50 a.m. Monday through the Locust Street door, 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 theft.

The incident is part of an ongoing string of school-based thefts plaguing the school district. The district is losing 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."

Gallard said the thieves took 58 laptops, two other computers and an LCD projector that were in areas with both physical and electronic security. The computers have ID tags and are labeled school district property, Gallard said. Replacement value is about $1,300 per computer, he said.

In October, 15 netbook laptops worth about $25,000 were stolen from the Girard Academic Music Program. Also that 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.

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 was stolen from the district, according to an internal document obtained by The Inquirer.

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