from the Chicago Sun times

Laptops are hot among thieves

   April 27, 1999

   BY FRANK MAIN STAFF REPORTER

   Darryl K. Wofford is 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, but when he slipped into
   political consultant David Axelrod's building in December, the
   computer thief went unnoticed, police say.

   Wofford, 39, followed employees into the North Franklin building and
   waited for a chance to pry open an office door and steal Axelrod's
   laptop computer, said Sgt. Tony DeLeonardis, a Chicago police
   detective.

   Wofford, already convicted of stealing laptops to support a drug
   habit, was quickly arrested in the Dec. 15 burglary and the laptop was
   recovered, DeLeonardis said.

   ``I was appalled, but not surprised,'' Axelrod said. ``That was our
   fifth break-in. ... All of my past writings for campaigns I worked on
   were on that computer. I could live without it, but not easily. It was
   a pain.''

   Theft of laptops from offices, hotels, airports and parked cars is a
   growing problem in Chicago. Nearly 2,000 have been reported stolen in
   the past 16 months.

   In the Police Department's 1st District, which includes the office
   canyons of the Loop, more than 930 laptop computers were stolen in
   1998 and the first four months of this year.

   The runner-up was the Near North Side's 18th District, with 293
   thefts, followed by 93 thefts in the 16th District on the Northwest
   Side, covering O'Hare Airport, and 31 in the 8th District on the
   Southwest Side, which includes Midway Airport.

   ``I would think the thefts are on the rise because more [laptops] are
   available,'' Chicago police spokesman Pat Camden said.

   Laptops represented about 10 percent of personal computers shipped in
   the United States last year, according to research firm Dataquest.

   Chicago police began tracking laptop computer theft figures in 1998,
   when they noticed an increasing problem. Most suburban departments
   don't know the number of thefts because such information hasn't been
   elaborated. Nationally, laptop thefts rose 17 percent to 309,000 in
   1997, said Brian Haase of Safeware Insurance.

   ``You will see the theft number probably level off,'' Haase said. ``I
   think people are becoming more aware that they need to be careful with
   these.''

   Several gadgets on the market combat computer thievery. One product,
   CyberAngel, sends a silent electronic message to a security office
   when a stolen computer is plugged into a telephone line. James Wood of
   south suburban Homewood recovered a computer stolen from his office
   because of the device.

   ``My computer sat in the back of a van for two months, but when they
   tried to use it, the police were able to track it down,'' he said.

   David Pilling, director of technology at Jenner & Block, said the huge
   law firm gives employees a sheet called ``The Eight Commandments of a
   Laptop'' with instructions on how to safeguard their computers. The
   commandments include not leaving a laptop unattended, not checking a
   laptop through baggage at the airport and using a security cable to
   lock a laptop to desk drawers.

   Axelrod said he learned his lesson: he beefed up security for his
   office and never leaves his laptop unattended.

   ``And I always back up my information on a disc now,'' he added.


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