Schools combat computer theft

Service helps track thousands of dollars of stolen hardware.

Computers have brought the Internet into schools, but they’ve also brought thieves.

School systems are fighting back with a service that can track stolen hardware while building evidence for police.

“We haven’t had any big thefts of computers since October when we implement- ed this,” said Walter Woods, spokesman for the DeKalb County School District.

DeKalb was reeling from multiple thefts at Chamblee High School last year. After officials hired Absolute Software from Vancouver, about two dozen computers worth up to $100,000 combined were recovered, Woods said.

The company serves 15 school systems in Georgia. It won’t identify all its clients, citing privacy, but acknowledged serving the DeKalb and Fulton County school systems. Absolute Software said it has recovered 187 computers sto- len from schools in metro Atlanta.

Fulton schools spokeswoman Susan Hale said the company, which was hired in 2010, recovered 11 laptops this year and 29 last year.

Geoff Glave, a senior product manager at Absolute, said the company installs a program that can transmit the computer’s location via the Internet and puts a note on the computer’s screen that it belongs to the school system if it’s reported missing. The Computrace software also records social network posts, emails and other information on missing computers that can be used in court.

Eventually, police are notified. If they recover the stolen gear, the captured information can help them make a criminal case, Glave said. “Typically, they’re happy to do it because we’ve done all the legwork for them.”

His company has recovered computers from a Georgia teacher, an Atlanta school custodian and even a purveyor of gold teeth at Underground Atlanta. Sometimes, hardware travels farther. “It’s not un-