Thousands Of Dollars Worth Of Audiovisual Equipment Stolen From North Campus

Five audiovisual projectors valued at more than $20,000 were stolen from several classrooms at North Campus during winter break, according to a Miami-Dade Police Department incident report.

However, public safety officials at North Campus said the projectors were valued at just more than $6,000.

The thefts were discovered on Jan. 3 at 7:15 a.m. by a media services employee who said he entered Room 8116 to set up the area for the start of classes and saw that the projector had been yanked out and the wires had been cut, according to a North Campus public safety report.

Projectors were also reported missing from rooms 8102, 8104, 7108 and 7109. School officials said the rooms in the 7000 building are used for math, English and foreign language courses, and the 8000 building classrooms are used by the School of Justice. All the projectors were immediately replaced and service to students was not disrupted.

It is unclear how the suspects entered the room but there were no signs of forced entry. The classrooms do not have alarms and no cameras are installed in the vicinity where the thefts took place, according to Victor Moreno, the public safety chief at North Campus.   

Officials said patrols in the area have been heightened.  

“We have added more patrol[s] and door check[s] by public safety,” Moreno said. “We added Miami-Dade police patrol during overnight hours. All door[s] are being double-checked by maintenance department to make sure they are completely secured.”  

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Miami-Dade Police Department at 305-471-TIPS or the North Campus Public Safety department at 305-237-1100.