Surveillance cameras record theft of laptop
The USU Police Department is searching for a suspect involved in a laptop computer theft in the Living Learning Center.
The laptop was stolen on Friday, Oct. 8, from the common area of the LLC, said Sgt. Travis Dunn, who took the call for the theft. The laptop was taken at approximately 9:15 p.m.
Director of Residence Life Whitney Milligan said the doors to the building lock at 10 p.m. every night and unlock at 7 a.m. every morning. Once the doors are locked, people can only enter if they have a card that will temporarily unlock the door. During daytime hours, the doors are unlocked and anybody can enter the building.
Dunn and Capt. Steve Milne said the USU Police Department has video footage of the person stealing the laptop.
“The video shows this individual entering the door, looking around, going to the location of the laptop, picking it up and then leaving the building,” Milne said. “He didn’t go anywhere else in the building.”
Dunn and Milne said suspect must have known the LLC building pretty well.
“He comes in the building, he sees the laptop, he then goes and walks around the building to make sure nobody’s around, then he runs and grabs it, and he’s out the door,” Dunn said.
Dunn said in his opinion, the suspect was originally going to the building to visit a friend when he saw the laptop sitting unattended and took it because no one was around.
“I think it was just a crime of opportunity,” Dunn said.
The person who took the laptop was in the building for less than a minute, Dunn said.
Police are looking at footage from video cameras in other buildings on campus in order to get more information about the suspect.
The police don’t know if the suspect is a student or not. Police said the individual is of student age and seemed to know the campus fairly well. Milne said the suspect is most likely not a resident of the LLC because the residential advisers don’t recognize him from the footage on the video cameras.
“He’s a student at Utah State or just somebody walking through the campus,” Milne said. “We don’t have any information, that’s why we’re looking for anybody that could give information.”
Dunn said the suspect appears to be Hispanic or black, about 5’9″, around 150-160 lbs. and clean-cut, and wore a dark colored sweatshirt or hoodie with light colored stripes on it, and jeans.
The laptop is black and is a Gateway, Dunn said.
Dunn said that if anyone has any information about the suspect, they should call him on the police dispatch line, 797-1939.
People shouldn’t leave valuable property unattended in public, Dunn said.
“Let’s use it as a learning opportunity,” he said. “Even though we are one of the safest schools in the nation, we still have problems.”
Milne said people tend to think this is a safe area and it generally is. But, he said, students shouldn’t leave valuable items out of their sight in public and they shouldn’t leave their doors unlocked when they go to talk to a friend, even it it will only be for a minute.
Milne said when students leave their doors unlocked or their valuables unattended they give people the opportunity to steal.
– blaze.bullock@aggiemail.usu.edu