Laptops stolen from offices are a hot item

Friday, May 25, 2001

By LESLIE KOREN
Staff Writer

Police said a criminal ring may be responsible for swiping dozens of laptop computers from businesses throughout North Jersey.

About 30 high-end laptops -- worth about $76,000 in all -- have been reported stolen from secure office buildings in Fort Lee, Englewood Cliffs, and Parsippany, police said Thursday.

Fort Lee police said they were first alerted March 15, with the most recent thefts occurring between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

"With the volume of [laptops] that are being [taken], there's got to be a fence for them," said Capt. Steve Hervey. "This is not a drug addict walking out of these places and selling them."

"People leave these things laying around and just about anyone who can jimmy a door can get them."

Fort Lee police have a fuzzy video image of one suspect, a white, heavyset woman with dark hair who was seen entering Two Executive Drive early May 9, about the same time that an alarm rang in a computer room at a Computer Associates office there. Three laptops were later reported missing, police said.

On May 14, PWC/Unifi reported 13 IBM Thinkpads stolen from its offices at 2100 North Central Road. Company officials believe the thefts occurred in December, but it took months to track down whether they were actually missing or just signed out to employees, Hervey said.

The delay in reporting makes the crimes especially difficult to solve, Hervey said.

"They hand these things out like Frisbees," Hervey said.

In Englewood Cliffs, six to 10 laptops have been stolen from different locations over the past month, said Lt. George Murray.

The laptops were also high-end IBM Thinkpads and Compac Armados valued at about $3,000 each, he said. Police had no suspects.

Parsippany police said they could not immediately provide information about thefts there.

Staff Writer Leslie Koren's e-mail address is koren@northjersey.com