2 Buena Park Men Arrested in Theft of Computer Parts

Police officers from four agencies arrested two men in Costa Mesa on Wednesday on suspicion of stealing computer hardware.

Leon Leonard Jones, 41, and Joee Kondwani Lee, 24, both of Buena Park, were arrested on their way out of a commercial building near John Wayne Airport. They were allegedly carrying stolen computer parts and laptops worth $20,000 to $25,000.

“We’re investigating the possibility that they were involved in 25 burglaries throughout Orange County,” Irvine Police Lt. Tom Hume said.

Officers from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police departments and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department assisted.

Police have dubbed the men “RAM Raiders” because they are suspected of stealing random access memory cards, part of the hardware that makes up the brains of computers.

Stolen computer parts often are sold to dealers and at swap meets. Irvine has had 33 such commercial burglaries in the last year totaling losses of $650,000, Hume said. Seven similar crimes have been reported in Costa Mesa.

Irvine Police Sgt. Brian Clifton said the real value of the computer often is what’s stored in it.

“A lot of businesses don’t back up what they have on their laptops,” Clifton said. “They may have information on them that’s worth more than the laptop.”

Police officers said they had been watching the suspects for the past two weeks.

Both were being held Wednesday at Orange County Jail on $50,000 bail.