Leads Sought in $70,000 Computer Theft at UCLA

A three-story UCLA office building was cleaned out of more than $70,000 worth of computers in a smoothly orchestrated theft, campus police said Tuesday.

Detectives believe a team of thieves in a white Ford van pulled up to the Graduate School of Education and Information Science building and systematically unloaded 32 computer processors, laptop computers and multimedia computers.

They rifled through desks to find master keys to 12 rooms. Pencils appeared to have been left on the floor pointing at the rooms containing the most valuable computers, but it was unclear who had placed them there, police said.

The theft occurred Oct. 17, but officials did not release details until Tuesday after deciding to ask the public for help in catching the burglars. The theft effectively halted one UCLA class with more than 60 library science students and postponed another course for three months. Some research activities will be set back six months to a year.

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“One of the faculty said it’s like trying to teach piano without a piano,” said assistant professor Anne Gilliland-Swetland, who teaches courses on digital libraries and archives. “Technology has become so integral to every aspect of what we do. When it’s not there, I think we realize the new vulnerability we have.”

The theft--the first significant computer burglary on the Westwood campus in two years--represents the tip of a chronic problem for universities in the Information Age: In recent years, rings of computer thieves have preyed upon academic institutions, which typically provide students with easy access to technology.

The financial loss in these crimes quickly adds up because of the high cost of each computer. The wave of campus computer theft nationwide has been called devastating by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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“Since 1995, we really haven’t had computer burglaries to this degree,” said Det. Terry Brown of the University of California Police Department. “Unfortunately, it happens and we are taking precautionary measures, and hopefully some of the departments on campus can also take preventional measures.”

UCLA suffered a series of computer burglaries from 1992 to 1995 at dormitories and campus buildings, but the situation has been relatively quiet since then. In about half of those incidents, students, former students or campus employees were involved.

In 1992, two undergraduate were arrested in connection with the theft of $200,000 in computer equipment. In 1993, a former student was arrested on charges of stealing $61,000 in equipment after his picture was taken by a surveillance camera.

In 1994, a Russian immigrant was arrested on suspicion of 20 separate computer thefts at UCLA and dozens of other burglaries, totaling more than $1 million, at universities on the West Coast.

In 1995, two suspects were arrested on charges of using UCLA purchase orders to buy more than $100,000 in computer memory chips, and an employee was arrested in burglaries at the Medical Center worth about $100,000.

UCLA police are offering a reward for information about the latest case. Campus police can be reached at (310) 825-9371.