[PRL] timely

[Jamie L. Raymond]

November 29, 2003
Neat Thieves Are Zeroing In on Laptops
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA, Nov. 28 (AP) — A man walked into an Atlanta office, made 
chitchat with two workers and sat down for lunch with them. Nobody 
noticed when he left with four of their laptops.

Such neatly dressed thieves who walk into the workplace looking for 
expensive laptops or purses are a growing problem for businesses. Since 
laptops became common in the mid-1990's, criminals have sought them in 
particular as a way to make a quick profit.

"They have pretty significant street value," said Carlos Villarreal, 
director of security for Trizec Properties Inc., whose buildings include 
the Sears Tower in Chicago.

The police estimate that laptops fetch $500 to $1,800 on the street and 
say laptop snatchers know which brands are likely to bring the best price.

The cost to businesses goes beyond the hardware. "The equipment itself 
is worth a couple thousand dollars," Mr. Villarreal said, "but the 
information the laptop holds is sometimes irreplaceable."

For example, a presentation necessary to land a major business deal may 
cost a company millions, said Officer W. L. Swann with the DeKalb County 
police in Atlanta.

Laptop thieves, called office creepers, have legions of unwitting 
accomplices in employees with a false sense of security. Just because an 
office building has security guards or receptionists does not mean that 
thieves will be deterred.

"People just don't think," Officer Swann said.

A big part of the problem is that the thieves do not arouse suspicion.

"These people typically look like everybody else, and they're just 
walking through the building," said Patrick DiGregorio, a vice president 
for the property management company Nordblom Management. "A well-dressed 
person can easily walk into these spaces and be unnoticed."

Daniel Millhouse, senior operations manager at Barton Protective 
Services in Atlanta, said: "They're good at what they do, they're very 
nice people and they have great personalities. That's why they're so 
successful, because they're so nice."

Security officials say employees should hide purses and lock up their 
laptops. When someone visits the office, workers need to question what 
they are up to. Doors should not be propped open, and security badges 
help identify who belongs where.

The prevalence of laptop thefts is hard to determine because the crime 
is not broken down in police records, usually being recorded instead as 
theft or robbery.

Companies reported average losses of $47,107 in laptop thefts in 2002, 
according to the 2003 Computer Security Institute Computer Crime and 
Security Survey. About 63 percent of respondents to the survey said they 
were victimized by laptop thefts in 2002, up from 55 percent in 2001.

When office creepers first became a problem, several businesses got 
together with property owners and the police to catch the thieves. One 
group called Metro Tech, formed in Atlanta in 1995, is now a national 
organization that shares information when crime occurs. Through Web 
sites, the companies and the police share office surveillance photos and 
descriptions of office creepers.

But Mr. Millhouse said the only way to cut down on the crime was to 
educate office workers about how vulnerable they are. To make his point, 
he grabs workers' laptops or pockets their wallets during seminars on 
how employees should be on the lookout.