A nerd had his revenge Thursday night when a member of Best Buy’s Geek Squad solved a school burglary, recovering stolen computers and becoming a hero for the day, police said.
A Best Buy employee got suspicious when Justin Hill, 26, and Ivan Hill, 19, brought in three computers to the Hamilton Place store and asked him to override passwords on the machines.
The employee’s sister teaches at Normal Park Museum Magnet’s Lower School campus, so he knew of the Tuesday night burglary in which thieves took computers and vandalized the school, said store manager Tom Huskin.
And sure enough, when the employee logged into the machines, the username was “Normal Park,” said Mr. Huskin, who was working at the time. The machines were confiscated.
“This is definitely a headline for the dumbest criminals,” Mr. Huskin said.
The employee was not working Friday and was unavailable for comment.
Justin Hill, who is not related to Ivan Hill, was charged with burglary, felony vandalism and theft over $1,000, Chattanooga police said. Ivan Hill was charged with theft over $1,000.
After Tuesday night’s break-in, both men were found by police Wednesday night in a parked car outside Normal Park’s Upper School campus on West Mississippi Avenue. The men were dressed head-to-toe in black and were carrying walkie-talkies, according to police.
“It was suspicious as all get-out, but (the officers) didn’t have anything they could detain them on,” said Chattanooga Police Department Officer Mark Bender, who investigated the Normal Park burglary.
After questioning the two men, police went to one of the men’s addresses, 2201 Park Ave. at a Guest House Inn, and searched it. They didn’t find any more of the electronic equipment from the school theft but did find an active methamphetamine lab, according to police.
Officers arrested Michael Sims, Michael Bledsoe and Katie Kindelspire and charged them each with manufacturing and possessing meth along with other drug paraphernalia.
Police said they recovered the rest of the stolen property at the second address provided by Justin and Ivan Hill, 609 Snow St.
The Normal Park burglary was the second one this month at a Hamilton County public school. A few weeks ago, thieves stole computers from Howard School of Academics and Technology.
Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales said the system has not yet made any physical changes to school security after the burglaries. He said he will present a detailed security plan to the Hamilton County Board of Education at a meeting later this month.
On Friday morning, after Normal Park first-grade teacher Megan Methvin got news that her classroom’s stolen computer had been recovered, she had her students write thank-you cards to the employee.
PROPERTY RECOVERED* Five Dell laptops* One Apple iMac keyboard* One Radio Shack megaphone* Walkie-talkies
Haydn Payne, 6, said she was very happy to have the computer back so she could continue playing her favorite Fast Math game. She expressed her gratitude in a handwritten letter to the employee.
“You are my hero. Thank you for saving the school year. You saved us from the bad guys,” she carefully read out loud.
Normal Park Principal Jill Levine also was appreciative.
“Sometimes everyday people become heroes, and this Geek Squad guy had the courage to keep (the two suspects at Best Buy) and call the police,” she said. “Not everyone does that.”
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