Thieves Damage Businesses to Get to Laptops

Police are looking for suspects in a Wednesday morning burglary that cost two Rancho Bernardo businesses more than a dozen laptops and computers.

Police were notified of an alarm activation at the first business in the Bernardo North Business Center on the 11300 block of Rancho Bernardo Road at 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, San Diego Police Officer Susan Steffen said. The second notification at the next business came 15 minutes later.

One computer was taken from the second business and 12 laptops were stolen from the first, Steffen said.

Steffen said police are not releasing the names of the businesses due to the ongoing investigation, but an employee at one of the businesses showed Patch where the burglary had taken place.

Steffen said suspects rifled through office drawers after entering the first business—one suite in an office park—by breaking a lower window, Steffen said.

"Then they got a hammer and hit a wall, thinking they were going to tunnel through to a second business. But that second business was just another office in the original office," Steffen said.

An employee at the first business showed Patch an office with gaping hole in a wall shared with another office. A bookcase had been in front of the space with the hole, but it, too, had been broken in the burglary, the employee said.

Other items besides the laptops, including a small vacuum and trash bags, are missing, the employee said.

"They were clean thieves," the employee said.

The suspects also were able to break into a neighboring business after breaking a lower window.

Officers are still interviewing the business owners to gauge the full extent of the damage, Steffen said. A videocamera mounted high on the wall outside the businesses is under review for images of the suspects.