Burglars Strike School District Again in Alleged Strawberry Laptop Heist

For the , a cache of computers was stolen from a Mill Valley school, with the alleged burglars this time stealing 20 Apple Macbook laptops from  before ditching the emptied computer cart on a hiking trail near the “four corners” intersection off Panoramic Highway.

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is looking for suspects after the alleged theft of 20 laptop computers from the school library in the hours before the start of school Monday morning, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Barry Heying. The laptops were valued at $1,300 apiece for a total worth of an estimated $26,000 — from the Strawberry Point School library.

Strawberry Point Principal Leslie Thornton discovered that a locked metal security cart containing the laptops was missing and reported it at around 8:25 a.m. Monday, Heying said. Sheriff’s deputies found that a library door was pried open, Heying said.

On Tuesday afternoon, a hiker found the empty metal cart about 100 yards down a trailhead near the “four corners” intersection of Panoramic Highway and Sequoia Valley Road, east of Muir Woods, indicating that the thieves were either heading to West Marin or had gone far our of their way to ditch the cart.

The white steel cart was four feet high and heavy enough to require two people to lift, Heying said.

The burglary comes less than three months after suspects allegedly broke into , which was in the midst of a , and stole 47 Apple MacBook and iBook laptops. The suspects in that case cut a padlock to an access gate on Old Mill St. to get on the campus and then pried open a window in the school’s multi-purpose room on the back side of the school, according to the . Police continue to investigate the heist but haven’t identified any suspects.

"We're working with the police department to increase our security and making sure everything is functioning as it should," said Tim Ryan, the director of maintenance and operations for the . "Schools statewide are inherently open places, and we have to find a balance between remaining open and maintaining a high level of security."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Marin County Sheriff's Office at 415-499-7233 or Bay Area Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.