To those who knew him, Philip Totaro was just like any other hardworking student athlete at Rensselaer. Last semester, however, Totaro was expelled only days away from graduation, and he later served 90 days at the Rensselaer County Jail and paid a $200 fine. He pleaded guilty to criminal possession of stolen property. The property taken over a period of two months from various labs around campus consisted of six flat screens and a CPU. “This was a major case for us, but coming from one of our students it was troubling. We felt no joy at solving it,” said Lt. Joseph Audino with the Department of Public Safety. The authorities were first tipped off when the CPU was detected on the network, and so it was only a matter of finding the location of the hardware. According to police records, Totaro was arrested on May 16 at the request of RPI security and the stolen property was confiscated from his room at Roebling Hall. “We have always hoped that one of our security methods would work out as it has in this case,” said Sharon Roy, director of academic computing services. Following this case and a number of unrelated thefts, ACS has been working with other Information Technology operations and Public Safety to install new software and hardware devices that could make security and apprehension more efficient. “The bottom line is that we want our students to feel safe without inconveniencing them,” said Dean of Students Mark Smith. It seems that Totaro had no intentions of selling the screens which he lined three on top of three or the CPU which he used for financial trading. “I can’t really say why he did it. They were there and he kept going back for more thinking it’s easy,” said Smith. It also appears to investigators that Totaro was working alone. The material that Totaro used for his operation was also found, and all leads that could have pointed to a criminal ring were “exhaustively investigated,” said Audino. Consequently, what could have been a brief investigation took a lot longer than usual. Nonetheless, the elation that could have come with solving the case was missing for Public Safety. “We hoped it was someone from outside. He was a part of our community—he was one of us,” said Assistant Director of Public Safety, Mark Delvichio. Moreover, Totaro’s attitude of “RPI could afford it” seems to “shatter the ideals that make us a community,” said Audino. The consequences of thefts affect students directly when there are fewer computer stations to use, limited lab hours, and reduced funding in other needed areas. The police report also lists the value of the stolen property at $6,300. “If he only stopped to think and compare the monetary value to what he could make if he graduated he would have seen how foolish this was,” said Audino.