Thieves Steal Computers Worth $40K from San Bruno School

Thieves cut padlocks and broke windows in order to gain access to a cart full of 13 and 15 inch Mac Book Pro computers at El Crystal Elementary School in San Bruno Thursday night, March 28. 

According to San Bruno Park Elementary School District Superintendent David Hutt the break-in occurred around 10 p.m. and the thieves were in and out in about four minutes and managed to get away with 17 or 18 computers.

In order to gain access to Room 10, the storage room from which  the computers were stolen, the thieves first had to cut a pad lock on a gate at the front of the school then break the glass on the door to Room 10.

The thief or thieves then were able to unlock the door from the inside.  At that point the thieves cut the lock on a cart where the new model computers were stored.

According to El Crystal Principal Skip Johnson, the thieves were very particular about what they were stealing and may have had some prior knowledge about the carts used to store the computers.

“They didn’t touch a cart with iPads or iPod Touch’s or another cart with older MacBooks,” said Johnson.

Johnson said trying to identify a possible culprit would be nearly impossible.  “We’ve been using technology for at least 10 years,” said Johnson.  “I wouldn’t be able to begin to isolate a particular community member.”

“We’ve not been given any information of indication that it was an inside job,” said Superintendent Hutt.

There was blood found at the scene and according to Johnson, the San Bruno Police took it as evidence.  Patch has requested information from the San Bruno Police about how the blood found at the scene will fit into their investigation.

El Crystal Elementary is a demonstration STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) school and will become a STEM magnet school next year.

"This is a financial and emotional setback," said Johnson.  "We weren;t planning on replacing $30,000 worth of computers."

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