On Feb. 21, the Reporting Officer (R/O) was dispatched to Park Avenue and Stewart Avenue regarding a suspicious man leaving the area in a Toyota. The initial caller informed Winthrop Police Dispatch that she had witnessed a suspicious–looking male running from the Rutledge Building breezeway to his vehicle.
The suspect was seen carrying an iMac computer monitor, which he placed in the vehicle’s backseat before driving away towards Park Avenue and Stewart Avenue.
Upon arrival, the responding officers were unable to locate the vehicle the caller had mentioned. Dispatch was able to run the tag of the vehicle through NCIC, but after searching the surrounding area, responding officers were unable to locate the vehicle.
On Feb. 22, Interim Chief Charles Yearta was contacted by a student regarding a missing iMac. The R/O then attempted to locate surveillance footage of the incident but was unable to find any footage from inside the building from which the laptop was taken. However, the R/O did locate footage of a vehicle matching the description of the suspect entering the Winthrop campus.
The footage showed the same vehicle the caller had mentioned driving in front of Tillman Hall. From that camera angle, it was observed that the suspect’s vehicle had driver–side rear collision damage along with a missing brake light cover on the passenger side. The footage also shows the suspect running towards his car with the iMac computer and driving off.
