Homepage / Nashville News
E-Mail News Alerts
Get breaking news and daily headlines.
Browse all e-mail newsletters

I-Team: 4 Stolen Metro Laptops Still Missing

Four Laptops From Separate Buildings Stolen Since 2005

POSTED: 12:12 pm CDT April 28, 2008
UPDATED: 12:04 pm CDT April 29, 2008

The I-Team has uncovered evidence of more stolen Metro laptops and new questions about private information security.

Watch This Story

In December, two laptop computers were stolen from the Metro Election Commission that contained the personal information of all residents registered to vote in Davidson County.

The election commission laptops were found later without any private information being lost, but the thefts raised a slew of questions.

After that incident, the I-Team found out what kind of private information can be kept on city computers and also about past thefts of city-owned laptops.

Everything from Social Security numbers to private financial information were contained on four stolen laptops that were taken in 2005 and 2006 from separate Metro buildings.

The election commission thefts were the first real crisis of Mayor Karl Dean’s administration.

"The taxpayers, the voters deserve better," he said at the time.

The crime exposed holes in Metro’s security with poorly guarded buildings and poor practices like storing sensitive information on hard drives and writing passwords on Post-it notes.

Most people thought the thefts were a one-time thing, until the I-Team started digging.

According to police reports and city documents from the past five years, the I-Team found that four more Metro laptops and other valuable equipment was stolen from Metro offices and none of it -- including the four laptops -- has been recovered.

"Well, you know, seeing this, there's a problem," said Metro Councilman Michael Craddock.

The I-Team reported that the laptops were easily taken from Metro offices, and security failed to catch the thieves in action or recover any of the computers.

Two laptops were stolen from the Metro Finance Department in 2005, a laptop was stolen from the Metro Southeast Building in 2006 and a laptop was stolen from the Metro Arts Commission in 2006. All of the computers are still missing.

The Metro Arts Commission is also in the same building as the Metro Election Commission, which means the election commission building had experienced a laptop theft just a year before the most recent break-in.

"From looking at these past incidents, there seems to be a pattern of our buildings being somewhat non-secure," Craddock said.

"If I had even one laptop missing from my company, I would be deeply concerned," said computer specialist Joe Irrera.

As far as what was on the four stolen computers, city officials said not to worry.

Dean’s spokeswoman Janel Lacy said the user of the Metro finance computers didn't save anything to her hard drive.

Officials said the missing laptop from the Metro Southeast Building was blank. And the laptop stolen from the Metro Arts Commission had nothing on it, according to Metro Arts Commission Director Norree Boyd.

"I don't believe it," Irrera said.

Irrera said he has his doubts after the election commission incident because employees there did save Social Security numbers on the hard drives.

"The whole mentality of just ‘trust us’ went out the window when that catastrophe happened," he said.

Irrera said that even if the Metro employees using the stolen laptops believe they worked entirely off a server that it's nearly impossible not to save some documents to a hard drive.

"How many of us receive e-mails with those attachments? Where do you save them? You save them to your computer," he said.

"Do you feel there should be an investigation into these four other laptops that went missing?" I-Team reporter Jeremy Finley asked Irrera.

"After what happened at the election commission? Absolutely," Irrera said.

Dean’s office said there's simply no way to know for sure what was on the computers, but all the users said they didn't store anything on the hard drives.


Links We Like
Sponsored Content
Don’t believe everything people tell you about home improvement. Check out the top 4 myths and stop throwing away your money. More

If you have aspirations of becoming a millionaire, check out these five habits that may be worth emulating. More

Eating breakfast is good for you, but eating a healthy breakfast is even better. Get the scoop on which breakfast foods are the most nutritious. More

You’ve heard of certain foods that can help you prevent cancer and even halt the spread of the disease. Find out if these anti-cancer foods really work. More

Sponsored Links

Consumer Info


Sponsored Content Provided by ARA