WHITTIER : Taking a Byte Out of Crime

After computer thieves hit an East Whittier City School District campus last summer, maintenance supervisor Juan Luevanos hit the drawing board.

Hillview Middle School had lost six computers--about $9,000 worth of equipment--after burglars snipped the cables used to secure them. Luevanos inspected the cable system, which cost about $75 per computer, and decided he could do better.

He designed a steel cage that wraps around the computer’s disk drive and the base of the monitor screen. It is bolted to desks on one side by anti-theft hinges and secured with a steel padlock on the other.

The brackets have been attached to 100 of the district’s computers so far, as well as some televisions and videocassette recorders. The school district plans to install the device on all of its 600 computers.

“Most computer thefts are the snatch-and-run type thefts, where they want to just grab it and get (out). That’s what this will prevent,” said Gary Drabeck, head of the district’s maintenance department, which also handles classroom security.

And there is another advantage. The brackets cost $27 apiece, about a third of what the district paid for the cables.

“These are tough times,” said Luevanos, 41, of La Mirada, who started his job at the district six years ago. “These schools have to watch every penny.”