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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Laptops stolen from bookstore

The GW Bookstore will continue to sell computers after six pre-paid laptops costing $18,000 were stolen from the store last month.

Pat Lee, manager of the bookstore, said students can still buy computers and computer products at the software desk located on the store’s first floor.

Lee said the students whose laptops were stolen could pick up new computers at the store without incurring extra cost.

On Aug. 19, a security camera showed an unidentified male stealing the computers during bookstore operating hours, University Police Chief Dolores Stafford said.

Stafford would not disclose any other details about the theft but said Metropolitan Police officers searched the Marvin Center for evidence but made no arrests. MPD is still investigating the incident.

She said the same suspect came to the store again on Aug. 21 and tried to steal three laptop computers.

In that instance, UPD learned from bookstore staff that the suspect entered the store with an empty luggage cart, walked to the back and filled the cart with three computers. A bookstore employee saw the loaded cart near the checkout counter minutes later, and then saw the male leave the store without the computers.

Stafford declined to comment when asked if the suspect was a student.

The bookstore has been the sole vendor of computers on campus since the closing of Colonial Computers last year.

Lee would not discuss any extra security precautions the bookstore might take in the wake of the heist. The store already has security procedures in place, making shoppers deposit backpacks and bags in cubbyholes upon entering the store.

– Michael Barnett contributed to this report.

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