Illinois lawmaker's laptop stolen from office

ALTON -- A state lawmaker is puzzled about why someone would steal his state-owned laptop from his Alton office and leave other computer equipment behind.

Democratic State Representative Dan Beiser says he doesn't believe the computer and flat-screen monitor stolen sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning contained confidential or damaging information.

The Samsung laptop has a tag identifying it as property of "State of Illinois House of Representatives." That may make it easy to identify if it turns up and hard for someone to pawn or sell.

Beiser doubts the burglary could be politically motivated.

Police list the loss at about $2,000.