By Nick Starling nstarling@nebraska.tv
Facebook / Twitter @NTVNickStarling
The string of area school break-ins continues as Phillipsburg, Kansas, is the latest victim.
Now the FBI is involved in the investigation.
The break-in happened in the early morning hours on Aug. 9 and this was by far the hardest school hit.
Seventeen area schools this summer in southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas are being hit hard by this contuning break in scandal -- and the latest in Phillipsburg with around $75,000 of electronics stolen.
The waiting game on who's behind all of this continues.
The rash of school burglaries started earlier this summer with break ins at Southern Valley schools and at Cambridge -- that one resulting in $50,000 worth of electronics stolen -- the worst hit, until now.
"Shock, disappointment. They kinda hit the jackpot I guess," said Phillipsburg USD Superintendent Michael Gower.
The vandals took 150 iPads, 160 iPad chargers and 90 cases for the iPads.
"We had everything kind of in a centralized location, kind of in an assembly line," said Gower.
"With school budgets they way they are now days that's a devastating thing to happen," said Phillips County Sheriff Paul Wisinger.
This was the first day of school in Phillipsburg, and even with no iPads in hand, the students still took classes on how to use them.
There was surveillance video taken.
"The surveillance video showed three individuals what believed to be two male and one female suspect," said Wisinger.
But the thieves were wearing masks and hoodies and the picture wasn't clear.
"The video was a little bit fuzzy it was hard to make out anything," said Wisinger.
"Kinda frustrating to see them in your building causing destruction and not being able to do anything about it. I'd like to make them see the faces on the kids that they deprived of this opportunity," said Gower.
One common denominator in all of these burglaries is that major electronics were stolen...but nothing official yet on if they are all related.
The school district does have insurance on the iPads so they are hopeful they will get those new ones in pretty soon.
