Stolen Computers Recovered

Irvine police recovered a $2.7-million cache of stolen computers early Wednesday at a storage facility here in what authorities say signals a troubling problem of costly computer cargo heists from Federal Express and other delivery trucks.

In the most recent theft, police arrested Federal Express driver Curtis Carey of Tustin, a Costa Mesa man and two Ontario men. They were held at Orange County Jail on suspicion of burglary, grand theft and auto theft, Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato said.

Two delivery trucks, loaded with 456 Toshiba laptop computers valued at $6,000 each, disappeared from the Irvine Federal Express plant Saturday night in what police are calling an inside job.

Carey, 27, was one of three drivers who had worked the Saturday shift and was interviewed by police in the wake of the theft. He led police to the other suspects, who police declined to identify Wednesday because of the continuing investigation.

“Our suspicions were raised pretty quickly on this,” Allevato said. “The stories [of the suspects] just didn’t coincide.”

Thefts and hijackings of Federal Express and United Parcel Service trucks hauling computers or valuable computer components have become an increasing problem in the high-tech hubs of Orange County, as have takeover robberies and burglaries of computer manufacturers, police said.

“They are carrying a very valuable shipment,” Allevato said of the delivery vehicles. “And with some inside information and possibly luck, [the criminals] pick the right truck and they can walk away with several million dollars in computers.”

Allevato said police have been working over the past two years to train delivery drivers to avert hijackings by driving in caravan, keeping to a strict schedule and maintaining close contact with the plant.

But those precautions would not have prevented last weekend’s theft from the Federal Express plant in the 18600 block of Von Karman Avenue because the theft did not occur on a delivery route, police said.

Frank Dolan, the Federal Express manager for the Irvine station, helped workers inventory the stolen merchandise Wednesday and load it into the recovered trucks.

Dolan, who said Carey has worked for the company for about a year, praised the police response.

“These people were so professional and so quick to act on this. It’s just outstanding,” he said. “This could have been a significant loss to us.”

Information from Carey led detectives to two Ontario men and a Costa Mesa man who rented the storage space where the computers were kept. The Irvine Police Department’s SWAT team found the computers in Costa Mesa and shipping information at an Ontario home, Allevato said.

One of the Federal Express trucks was recovered in Ontario, and the other truck was found near the Irvine Federal Express plant.

The boxed laptop computers had been neatly stacked in the storage locker Tuesday afternoon by a man claiming to be a silk screener, said Susan Gabriel, the corporate secretary of the self-storage facility in the 600 block of West 17th Street.

Gabriel said a neatly dressed man with a yellow truck paid the first month’s rent in cash Tuesday and said he would be using the space for about four months to store silk-screened cardboard boxes. He identified himself as Temo Reyes of Brea, but police said the man is from Costa Mesa.

The theft is not the first to target high-tech merchandise. Last weekend’s theft comes on the heels of several big computer component heists in Irvine.

In May, armed men broke into Centon Electronics, held several employees at gunpoint and made off with memory chips valued at $9.9 million in the largest chip theft in U.S. history, according to the FBI. In July, armed men using similar tactics hit an Anaheim factory but misjudged their target and made off with far less.

Federal Express spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon said the thefts and hijackings have “not been increasing,” but last weekend’s cargo theft nevertheless is one of several to hit that company in Orange County over the past year, police said.

Two trucks, both driven by the same Federal Express driver, were hijacked in Fountain Valley in 1995 by masked men, one in the spring and one on Sept. 5, said Fountain Valley Lt. Bob Mosley.

In the September theft, the driver was tied up in the back of the truck before the robbers led police on a freeway chase, eventually fleeing the moving vehicle with the driver still inside.

Two suspects--Jock Johnson, 32, of Compton, and Terrence Tucker, 25, of Palmdale--are on trial in Orange County Superior Court for kidnapping and armed robbery, Mosley said.

And last month, Mosley said, about $500,000 worth of computer components was taken from a Fountain Valley manufacturer in a burglary. Mosley said many of the perpetrators are believed to be members of South Los Angeles gangs who are working for more sophisticated crime organizations.

Johnson is a former gang member who had been working for Compton schools steering youth away from gangs, Mosley said. According to Mosley, Johnson told police after his arrest that he had arranged to sell the parts to members of a Korean crime group.

“He said, ‘The word is out that if you want to rip off a Federal Express or UPS truck, go to Orange County, and Korean organized crime will pay you when you get the truck,’ ” Mosley said.

Fountain Valley police now patrol that city’s high-technology corridor with police dogs on the hour nightly, and they plan to install a mobile and highly visible police substation next to Kingston Technology in the 17600 block of Newhope Street within the week, Mosley said.

“We just got the bus painted today. It looks like a police motor home,” he said. “That’s what we want everyone to know, and there are real, live policemen in it too.”

Police also have been sending a unit to major high-tech manufacturing plants to monitor all large shipments of computer components.

Said Mosley: “When you start talking about a quarter-million- or half-million-dollar loss, you’ve got to be proactive.”