Faulty alarm at school blamed for computer thefts

A malfunctioning alarm that failed to alert Gurnee police of a break-in at O'Plaine Elementary School resulted in the theft of $20,000 worth of laptop computers, police said Friday.

In all, 19 computers were stolen from classrooms and the computer lab at the school at 333 N. O'Plaine Road, police and Gurnee Elementary District 56 officials confirmed.

Gurnee police Cmdr. Jay Patrick said burglars broke a window and entered the school at some point between Aug. 1 and Aug. 4.

It appears the burglars looked around inside the school, then left the building. Once outside, they went to different window, broke it and entered to steal the computers, Patrick said.

"We don't know why they exited, then re-entered from another window," he said. "But, we do know they used a cart inside the school to help them remove the laptops."

Patrick said the building has an alarm and it was activated, but it malfunctioned and didn't contact police, as it was supposed to do.

The break-in was discovered by a school custodian the morning of Aug. 5, Patrick said.

District 56 Superintendent John Hutton said the audio alarm was sounded at the school located behind Gurnee Village Hall, but the silent alarm that alerts police never made the call.

"We are still trying to pin down exactly what happened with that hook up," Hutton said. "It's operating now, but we don't know why it malfunctioned over the weekend."

Patrick and Hutton would not comment on details of the investigation or possible suspects.

Hutton said the new Apple laptop computers cost the district about $20,000 and were used by teachers and students. Fifteen of the 19 units were taken from the school's computer lab, and the other four were in classrooms.

"This is an unfortunate set of circumstances," he said. "The school was insured, so the computers will be replaced by the insurance company, minus the deductible, of course. But it's just a shame that this happened."

Anyone with information about the stolen computers is urged to contact the Gurnee Police Department at (847) 244-8640.

"Of course we feel violated by something like this," Hutton said. "Here we are trying to create a wonderful learning environment for children, and someone does this. It's disheartening."