Student shuts down laptop thief
Student shuts down laptop thief
Yesterday at 12:30 p.m., a suspected laptop thief was caught and handcuffed in the Stata Center after CSAIL researchers chased him down. Wesley D. Graybill G said that he saw the suspect making a dash for the exit, jumped in front of him, and slammed him into the wall. The suspect slipped by, but Graybill chased him down and was able to pull him to the ground. The researcher caught up and held down the suspect until the Campus Police arrived.
Graybill said that the alleged thief was first spotted on the second floor of the Stata center, holding a possibly stolen lab binder. A CSAIL professor and some other lab workers engaged the stranger in conversation to buy time for the Campus Police to arrive. The suspect then made a dash for the exit.
Graybill said that in the past few weeks several email warnings regarding laptop thefts were sent to some CSAIL mailing lists. The suspect caught yesterday fits the description from the warnings: a young, black male wearing a baseball cap sideways. According to Graybill, the sought after thief is responsible for around 20–30 laptops.
The MIT Police were not available for comment and did not respond to a request made by The Tech at 7 p.m. yesterday.
—Robert McQueen