Vandals Ransack Nevada County School, Taking 30 iPads, Leaving Behind Swath Of Destruction
LAKE OF THE PINES (CBS13) — Vandals hit a middle-school campus just days before the start of the school year, stealing dozens of iPads from the school.
The students at Magnolia Intermediate School will feel the impact of what happened Thursday night for the entire school year.
"Every horizontal surface is covered in this dust. You can't get away from it," said Nevada County Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Pettitt.
The fine, white dust that covers the floor, desks and computers is powder from the fire extinguishers the vandals took.
"And literally sprayed it everywhere. It's all over. The main office; it's over all their records, computers, phones everything," he said.
But they weren't done. Going from building to building, they used rocks to bust out windows at the school, stealing one teacher's iMac. Then, they got to the computer lab.
"We believe they knew what they were looking for in the computer lab," Pettitt said.
Deputies say the vandals stole 30 brand-new iPads meant for the junior-high students.
"They moved into a new world when you steal 30 iPads that's a huge loss for the school, huge loss for the kids," he said. "Unfortunately the kids are gonna have to do without those. They're the victims in this."
Parents were shocked to hear of the break-in, right before the start of school, meaning students may miss out.
"You know that's heartbreaking that someone would do something like that. It's kids," said Megan Shafer. "To take something away from them they wouldn't have a chance to have otherwise,it's really sad."
So far there are no suspects, but there are surveillance cameras all over the campus, and deputies will take a close look to see who was responsible for the theft.