A Rhode Island college recently saw a surge in dormitory thefts – one of which involved a student’s school-leased laptop. Because the college had equipped its entire lease fleet with Computrace laptop tracking software, the student was able to quickly report the computer theft to the Absolute Software Theft Recovery Team.

Upon receiving the theft report, the Recovery Team began to track the stolen computer’s location and gather information on its unauthorized user. It was soon determined that the user was a pizza delivery boy who — less-than-coincidentally —made regular deliveries to the college campus. This information was passed on to police, who paid a visit to the pizza parlor and addressed the suspect.

The suspect admitted to possessing the stolen laptop (perhaps hard to claim otherwise, as the computer was in the parlor at the time …) and gave further details into his thieving ploy. Upon delivering a pizza to the college dormitory, he would steal any unsupervised electronics, using the empty pizza bag to conceal stolen items. The bag served as a credulous cover; on separate occasions, the suspect had also managed to lift three additional student laptops, several handheld electronics and a gaming system — all of which he reluctantly turned over to police.

And if being caught red-handed in a pizzeria is not enough, it was also discovered that the suspect was violating parole for a previous offense, and adding an additional charge to the list, was not living at the address through which he was registered.

Although the delivery boy has since lost his job, he has gained an impressive criminal resume. And, the spike in dormitory thefts has since settled.

The laptop has been returned to the college.