Thieves help selves to APS electronics

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Crooks are looting Albuquerque schools for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods, and this year was even worse than last year.

It was another rough school year as thieves made off with more than $260,000 in computers and other equipment from Albuquerque Public Schools campuses.

Again and again computers are what crooks are after.

"This last year we were about $33,000 more than we were in the past," APS Operations Officer Brad Winter told KRQE News 13. "We had someone that broke into the portable and stole like 30 iPads at one time."

That iPad heist was at Mountain View Elementary School in May when someone went into an unlocked portable, broke open the iPad cabinet and stole more than $20,000 worth of the tablets.

Winter had told teachers before they were not supposed to leave electronics in the portables. The teachers got a reminder after the pricey theft to keep them in the main building, he added.

"Every one of our school are alarmed," Winter said. "They are alarmed, and we monitor the alarms."

But a lot of the thefts are in the evening when janitors are still in the building and the alarms aren't on yet.

So who would know when the alarms are on or off? An APS source said someone on the inside.

Which is exactly what happened in October when someone stole more than $20,000 worth of computers at Tomasita Elementary School.

Winter said APS is performing an audit to see where they are going wrong so they can protect the schools from more costly thefts.

APS police officers will also set up tactical plans to heavily patrol the schools during the evening and at night.

APS couldn't say how many people have been arrested or charged in connection with these cases. However, a significant number of the cases are unsolved.