TALK OF OUR TOWN
Coral Gables mayor's laptop lifted
BY JOAN FLEISCHMAN
joanfleischman@yahoo.com
Crime at City Hall in The City Beautiful: Someone swiped a laptop from the office of Coral Gables Mayor Don Slesnick.
Slesnick, 65, realized the Dell Latitude D420 was AWOL at 1 p.m. Wednesday. ''I turned around to type something on the computer, and it wasn't there.'' He last saw it on his wooden credenza at 4 p.m. Tuesday, after a City Commission meeting.
''No signs of forced entry,'' Officer Joel Rios's report says. No office files were rifled, and nothing else is missing, Slesnick adds. The mayor's intern, Trevor Zakov, 23, told investigators he locked the office at 4 p.m., after Slesnick left.
Antonio Valdes-Padron of Vista Building Maintenance Services cleaned the office from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., letting himself in with assigned keys, according to the police report. Valdes-Padron, 33, does not recall seeing the computer. He says he locked up after he finished.
Slesnick says there is no sensitive information on the laptop, or anything that would cause embarrassment. ``I use the computer knowing that it's a city computer and that all my records are public.''
Still, the mayor is not happy. ``I understand there are thieves in the world, but this is beyond my comprehension.''
Police estimate the value of the laptop at $2,000. The city's Information Technology Department says that figure is high and puts the resale value at $500. A crime scene technician dusted the mayor's second-floor office for fingerprints.
Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade County is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for info leading to the arrest of the culprit.
Slesnick says the city provided him with a temporary laptop -- a Dell Latitude XT Tablet. This time around, the machine is bolted to his desk.
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