Published: September 4, 1996

Burglar Alarm

Social studies teacher Guadalupe De La Torre was making copies in his high school's faculty lounge about 6 a.m. one day last March, and he didn't give a second thought to whether the nearby laptop computer he had been using was safe. He should have.

While De La Torre was busy photocopying, someone slipped in and stole the $2,500 computer, which the student government at Del Campo High School in Sacramento, California, had recently purchased. With the computer, the thieves took the teacher's notes for his master's thesis, a database of student-government information, and outlines for a proposed electronic bulletin board.

Someone later tried to sell the machine--minus its serial number--at the local Byte Brokers, a used-computer chain. But store employees read De La Torre's notes and alerted a high-tech task force based at the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. The unusual, multijurisdictional unit of state and local law-enforcement officers deals...