Computer Thefts Linked To Fugitive

Early one morning last summer, University of Washington police chased down a young, slight man who had in his pockets 125 computer chips taken from computers in Padelford Hall.

University campuses along the West Coast took notice.

Schools in California - including UCLA, Cal State-Fullerton and Cal State-Long Beach - as well as colleges in Oregon and Arizona had been hit by computer thefts with strikingly similar characteristics over the past 1 1/2 years.

When Avram Morar was chased from Padelford Hall and tackled in a canal near Husky Stadium, the UW already had been the target of 26 computer-related burglaries in 14 separate buildings from April through late August. The losses exceeded $150,000.

The thief or thieves had yanked knobs off doors with a pipe wrench and taken main computer units or chips. The pattern was the same at the other schools.

Although Morar has only been convicted of a few computer burglaries in California and has not been convicted in the UW break-in, campus police in Seattle and California believe he is part of, if not the leader of, a computer-theft ring tapping into a growing black market.

Morar was charged with six counts of second-degree burglary in King County Superior Court. But the 23-year-old Romanian immigrant posted $100,000 bond on Labor Day weekend and has not been seen since. Morar was a fugitive on a California warrant at the time, but that went unnoticed by authorities.

Police in California's Silicon Valley call computer chips "the cocaine of the '90s." Computer chips are the brains inside millions of personal computers.

The price of chips has soared by about 50 percent since a Japanese factory that supplies chemicals used to seal them burned down earlier this year.

Stolen computer parts often can't be traced, and may be bought by small-time manufacturers or resold at the retail and wholesale levels.

After Morar was arrested last year at Cal State-Fullerton, he demonstrated to authorities on video how easily he could move from room to room and steal computers. He seemed contrite, but he was twice caught lying during the demonstration. Each time he was confronted, he confessed to more.

When he promised to pay restitution and even suggested he make a $5,000 donation to the California higher-education system so it could put alarms in its buildings, authorities allowed him to plead guilty to misdemeanors.

But after making partial restitution of $14,000, Morar told his attorney and probation officer this year that no more money would be coming. His wife had cancer, he said, and they needed to move to Switzerland, where she could get treatment.

California authorities say they had not seen or heard from Morar until he was arrested in Washington. They say the computer thefts began again shortly after he disappeared.

Sometimes entire units except for monitors and keyboards were taken. Other times, it was just chips.

"Avram is no beginner; he's a real pro," said Mary Ranalli, a detective with Cal State-Fullerton who has been tracking computer burglaries along the coast. "I've been doing this 18 years, and he fooled me. Similar computer break-ins were happening up and down the coast, and I thought he was in Switzerland."

Ranalli and UW Police Capt. Randy Stegmeier say nearly all the burglaries share striking similarities: how and when they occur, what and how much is taken, how slickly they are done. But they police have precious little evidence.

Stegmeier said the university's major computer burglaries stopped when Morar was arrested.

Morar was arrested after UW officials rigged an alarm system that essentially put computers in Padelford Hall in constant communication with a main computer.