Student film projects stolen

By Monisha Martins - Maple Ridge News - May 16, 2008

NewS.46.20080516115741.GaribaldifilmB_20080516.jpg

Garibaldi students (from left) Sara Blake, Alysen Cox, Elizabeth Christie, Erin Cassidy and Tyler Norgaard lost their film projects when computers were stolen from a lab at the school on Tuesday.

Simone Ponne/THE NEWS

A high school in east Maple Ridge has lost all its new video editing computers after a visual arts lab was hit by thieves for the second time in less than a month.

The break-in Tuesday triggered an alarm around 1:30 a.m. at Garibaldi secondary.

Thieves made off with two computers before security guards arrived.

RCMP were called to investigate after the security guards found a window broken, a door breached and computers missing.

The theft cleaned out the last of six iMac computers from the lab.

The first four iMacs were stolen from the school, on Dewdney Trunk Road near 248th Street, on April 24 around 5:30 a.m.

Teacher Laura Richardson said the thieves were in and out of the room in four minutes after the alarm was triggered during the first theft.

They cut through barred windows, a bolted door and snapped chains off the computers to steal them.

Police took 20 minutes to arrive.

The school district doesn’t expect to replace the computers until September, when a new school year starts.

Students, meanwhile, are angry about losing creative projects that were nearly complete.

Tyler Norgaard’s five-minute long horror film Meet Adam and a second project chronicling a dream were on a hard drive of one of the computers stolen during the first theft.

He had completed the flick, inspired by gory slasher films, the night before.

“I figured it would be okay to leave it for one more night,” the Grade 11 student said.

Chenai Austin, who also worked on both projects, is really upset.

“We worked amazingly hard on those projects, they were picture perfect,” she said. “It’s not about the computers. It’s about all the time and effort we put into those films.”

Grade 12 film students Erin Cassidy, Sara Blake, Elizabeth Christie and Alysen Cox lost a documentary during the break-in Tuesday.

On hearing about the break-in, the four ran into the lab, said Cassidy.

“We thought they were playing a joke on us.”

The 10-minute video created by all four was commissioned by the school district, with the final product cut from more than three hours of raw footage.

The documentary was filmed to educate Grade 8 students about B.C.’s new school nutrition guidelines.

“We can’t redo it. It’s impossible,” said Christie.

According to police, the thefts mirror a string of robberies which targeted electronic equipment like computer hard-drives and monitors in downtown Maple Ridge over the past two months.

RCMP Sgt. Rob Lemon said the detachment’s crime reduction unit is aware of both thefts and is investigating the trend.

“We don’t know the reason for the thefts other than the quality of the monitors. They seem to be the hot item. They are easy to snag and get out.”

Investigators believe there may be a group of people behind the thefts.

“Generally it is our prolific offenders. Someone gets a certain MO [modus operandi] and away they go,” said Lemon.

“It is the small group that are usually doing this. When you locate one, that really drops everything.”

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Student film projects stolen

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