Laptop thief caught red-handed by College security
Security officer punched in face by suspect
College security officers, reacting to a report last Wednesday of the theft of a laptop computer, chased two young men across campus leading to an arrest and the assault of a security officer.
A second year graduate student reported the theft of their laptop from a desk in the computing lab, Room 303, in the Electrical Engineering building at 1pm. Another student, working in the lab, gave a description to security of two young men in their early-mid teens wearing jeans, trainers and grey hooded tops, each carrying black rucksacks.
At 1.30pm, members of staff in the Huxley building reported two young men matching these descriptions, wandering the building and attempting to open doors.
A security officer, responding to the report, confronted the pair on the campus walkway. The two youths split up; one running back into the Sherfield building and the second ran down the outside stairwell, dropping his rucksack. At the bottom of the stairwell, another security officer confronted him. He forced his way past the officer, punching him in the face, and ran off in the direction of the gate on Prince Consort road. A builder, working at the nearby construction site, saw him run up an alley between the church and an adjoining building.
The on-duty security officer at Beit, Jonathan Adams, left his post to give chase and caught the youth on Bremner road. Shortly after, the security team arrived with the police. The young man was arrested and charged with burglary and assault.
The dropped bag was later searched by police and found to contain the student’s stolen laptop. This was taken back to the station for fingerprinting and has now been returned to the student.
Analysis of CCTV footage revealed a picture of the second young man, who escaped. Police identified him as a known suspect, and are reported to have contacted him at his home address.
Darren Barrow, Senior Security Officer and Investigations and Crime management for the college, said the pair could be responsible for previous thefts on campus as they clearly had knowledge of the layout of campus.
The assaulted security officer, who did not wish to be named, sustained slight bruising to the eyebrow, but was not seriously injured.
