Gresham's City Hall became a crime scene over the weekend as an unidentified burglar made off with a collection of laptops and small electronics. The suspect, captured on surveillance video last Saturday, Sept. 6, seemed to focus on equipment that, interestingly enough, was mostly outdated and scheduled for the trash bin, Gresham Police reported.
Most of the stolen goods didn't stay missing for long, and they were found discarded mere blocks away from City Hall, as if the thief had a change of heart or realized the low value of the haul. Staff had the foresight to remove the hard drives from many of the laptops in anticipation of their disposal, thus the burglar's efforts to abscond with data were effectively thwarted—the remaining devices' contents were secured behind layers of encryption, and no critical City systems or sensitive data were compromised.
Despite the somewhat fortunate outcome, with the majority of the electronics recovered and the data safe, the incident prompts deeper questions about the security of our municipal buildings. The Gresham Police are now turning to the public for assistance in identifying the person responsible for the break-in and urging anyone with information to come forward.
