November 1, 2007
Thomasville-- High school gym class. . . it may not be a place you think you would be susceptible to theft. But it's the number one place thefts have happened recently says Deputy Steve Jones, school resource officer at Thomas County Central high school. "They've been occuring around the same time, in close proximity to each other," Jones says.
Principal Frank Delaney says, with 1600 students in the school, they've always had thefts. But in the last 3 weeks, certain items have consistently been reported missing. "These doggone things they're not supposed to bring to school in the first place: electronic devices," says Delaney. I-pods, cell phones, digital cameras and cash are some of the hot items being stolen right out of students book bags and purses.
"They were crimes of opportunity. Students left they're belongings lying around or sitting out, didn't use a locker, left it unattended for a period of time," says Jones. Instead of leaving your stuff alone, Jones says students have to start putting items in their lockers, and making sure they're locked. He says, "I don't care how late you're running, if you have valuables, you need to secure them before you go to class."
Better yet, Delaney says, don't bring them into the school. Leave them in you car if you have to. "Don't leave them in the front seat of your car, on the dash board where they can be seen, get your window popped out, lock it up in the compartment in the car," he adds.
Last week deputies charged 3 juveniles at the school in theft related cases, but think one or more culprits are still at it. "We're going to catch them and the reason that we're going to be able to do that is because we still have students that don't like theft. Students that like to have a safe environment and they tell us what's going on," Delaney says. And administrators say that's what it will take to get the problem under control.
The school resource officer says while electronic devices are typically hard to trace, last week they did recover a stolen digital camera and and mp3 player.
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