Thefts reported in schools

• By STEVEN WARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Mar 14, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Investigators believe a crime ring may be involved in the thefts of purses and wallets from six public schools in East Baton Rouge and one in Ascension and cell phones from two schools in Zachary.

Someone simply walked into the schools during school hours, sneaked into empty classrooms and stole teachers’ belongings, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks said Friday.

A theft ring is “definitely a possibility,” she said, noting that investigators from three law-enforcement agencies are working together to solve the cases.

At Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School on College Drive, a thief was confronted by a school employee, but managed to slip away.

The Westdale Heights employee told East Baton Rouge detectives she confronted the woman, who was not carrying a school pass, as she was walking out of an empty classroom on March 4, Hicks said.

The woman told the employee she was looking for a child, but would not give the employee the child’s name, Hicks said.

The employee, suspicious, went to get help, but the woman left by the time other school staff returned.

Afterward, the teacher assigned to that classroom said her purse was missing from her desk, Hicks said.

The teacher later learned that one of her stolen credit cards was used to buy more than $100 of merchandise from the Globe Closeout Outlet Store at 1540 N. Foster Drive, Hicks said.

A surveillance camera in the school captured footage of the woman when she left the Westdale classroom, Hicks said.

The robber is described as a light-complexioned black woman with a large birth mark or bruise on the right side of her face, Hicks said.

The woman is approximately 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall and 115 pounds.

Reports of stolen purses and wallets cropped up at Howell Park Elementary School on March 6, Park Elementary School on the same day, Buchanan Elementary School and Polk Elementary School on March 2, and Lanier Elementary School on March 3.