Computers, more taken from Sedge Garden Elementary - 4 other school break-ins reported, 3 involving computer equipment

Twenty computers and monitors were stolen from Sedge Garden Elementary School last week, Winston-Salem police said yesterday.

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office also has been investigating four other recent break-ins at schools. In three of the cases, computer equipment was also stolen.

It's not clear if the cases in the county are connected to the break-in at Sedge Garden, but a sheriff's detective is comparing notes on the cases with a Winston-Salem police detective, said Capt. Brad Stanley, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

"Basically, there's been five over the past month in the eastern part of the county," Stanley said.

On Friday, as students returned to school after a snow day, school employees at Sedge Garden discovered that the computers were missing from a pod, a mobile building that has seven classrooms and a bathroom.

Several of the cases in the county also involved someone breaking into a pod, according to the sheriff's office.

Janitors last cleaned the pod classrooms at Sedge Garden on Wednesday night, finishing by 9, so the break-in could have happened any time between then and Friday morning, said Gaye Weatherman, the school's principal.

It appears that the burglar broke in by removing a window screen and then prying open a locked window, Weatherman said. The classrooms in the pod were unlocked, but not every computer was taken.

The computers are valued at about $17,000, Weatherman said.

"What we're doing right now is just ensuring those seven classrooms have one computer to make sure teachers have access to e-mail and can do attendance," she said.

The school has filed an insurance claim. Weatherman said she didn't yet know how soon the computers could be replaced.

If any of the stolen computers turn up, the school has the serial numbers on file, she said.

The other break-ins were:

--East Forsyth High School. Over the winter break, someone got into a classroom through a window and took a computer valued at $1,800.

--Piney Grove Elementary School. Someone pried open a window overnight on Jan. 11 and took two computer modems valued at $770 each, two computer monitors valued at $200 each and a birdhouse.

--Walkertown Middle School. Someone broke in at some point between Wednesday and Friday, but nothing was taken.

--Walkertown Elementary School. On Friday night, someone took a laptop computer, a desktop computer and a CD player.