ATLANTA — Thieves stole more than 100 iPads from a metro school’s computer lab and have been tracked all over the world.
School officials at Kipp Atlanta Collegiate had added motion-sensor cameras and added metal to the windows to the building. Despite that, the burglars got in.
“The cart holds 30 iPads, you can see all the chargers there, so this is the one they kind of chopped the lock off of,” said Principal Dave Howland.
In one night, the school lost 119 iPads and a laptop.
“The real frustration is the lack of opportunity that my kids are going to get,” Howland said.
Howland said security camera video from September showed eight to 10 people breaking into the school late at night. Most were in black clothes, one person was in yellow. The thieves came into the camera’s frame and then ran down the hallway.
They ended up huddled around a door with a magnetic lock. Howland said the thieves broke off the door handle with their collective strength.
Once inside, they smashed through two windows and ended up stealing $50,000 worth of technology.
“They were in and out of the building in seven minutes,” Howland said. “With the last one, they actually took the cart out of the building and we found the cart in the woods behind the school the next morning.”
All of the iPads have a tracing system, and within 12 hours they started showing up all over.
“We had one pop up in Virginia Highlands, we had one pop up down in Riverside, a couple pop up near the airport. We had one pop up in Vietnam about a week ago,” Howland said.
Howland has a message for anyone who bought an iPad 2 within the last month.
“If you bought an iPad off of Craigslist for an incredibly great price, I would appreciate if someone would give me a call,” Howland said.
Atlanta police are investigating.
Howland said the district recovered two iPads and the laptop so far.
The school is offering a $500 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.
WSBTV
