Burglaries feared related to potential identity theft

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004 | 11:30 a.m.

Police are investigating a string of office break-ins that could be part of a scheme to steal the identities of thousands of people.

Computer hard drives have been stolen from at least nine doctors' offices, insurance companies and mortgage brokers in the past few weeks.

Police said they are looking at other burglaries to see if they are related.

"Our belief is it's an effort for identity theft," Henderson Deputy Police Chief Richard Perkins said.

The thieves typically steal just the hard drives of computers, or sometimes the entire machine, Perkins said. Other than grabbing some petty cash, they typically leave the rest of the offices alone.

Computers often are warehouses of personal information such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth and, sometimes, medical history. Doctors' offices typically keep personal information on thousands of clients.

Police don't know for sure that the thieves plan to use the information to obtain fraudulent identification or credit cards, Perkins said.

"When they mine the data out of those hard drives, who knows where it's going to go and what they're going to do with it," Perkins said.

In some of the latest burglaries, eight office suites, seven of them medical practices, were burglarized Sunday night at a complex at 2610 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway.

South Valley Pediatrics, Dr. Ed De Andrade, Dr. Gary R. Lee, Dr. Caroline Williams, Dr. Spencer Quinton and Associates, Odyssey Medical Center, Gastroenterology Center of Nevada and Tailored Marketing were all burglarized, though thieves did not successfully steal information in all of the offices.

Lee's office, for example, had not yet automated its records, and doesn't store personal information on computers, he said.

Other doctors lucked out as well on Sunday -- doctors at the Odyssey Medical Center store their information with a secured system in California, said Dr. Gnaneswer Billakanti, who said that six of the office's ten or 12 computers were cracked open with the hard drives stolen.

Quinton also said his office uses paper records and his employees have determined that none of his patient records were stolen.

Health care consultant Gale Koch said she is advising her medical clients to add extra password protection to their computerized records.

"Apparently there's a ring out there, and they're targeting medical practices,' she said.

The doctors in the Horizon Ridge building were amazed at how the thieves circumvented the security measures at the office complex by cutting cable and phone wires hooked into alarm systems.

At Lee's Horizon Ridge Wellness Clinic, the burglars bypassed expensive artwork and water fountains, opting simply to steal about $500 in cash and look at the office's computers.

"These guys, they were in and out of the whole building, from what I hear, in about an hour,' Lee said.

In the meantime, the clinic is implementing new security to make sure burglars can't get in again in the same way, he said.

Often, people who break into doctors' offices aren't just looking for patient identification -- they want doctor identification, as well, said Nevada State Medical Association executive director Larry Matheis.

"Usually, it's been linked trying to be able to either write prescriptions or order drugs online,' he said.

Other types of offices have experienced similar burglaries recently, though it is still unclear if they incidents were related.

On Monday night, a branch of Land Bank Realty at 1404 S. Maryland Parkway was burglarized , said owner Ernest Alzate. Thieves snuck through a small bathroom window and ransacked the office, stealing Alzate's eight computers, a fax machine and a printer, he said.

Personal information from at least 80 clients were on the hard drives of the mortgage, real estate and property management company, Alzate said.

Alzate said he will send a letter to all of his clients to let them know that they could potentially be victims of identity theft. He's also installing an alarm in his office.

One of those clients is Dr. John Nowins, who first heard about the break-ins on Tuesday when others in the medical field called to warn him to protect his medical records.

Later in the day, Nowins received a call from Alzate, his mortgage broker, saying that Nowins' own identity might have been stolen by the thieves Monday night. Now he is trying to secure his medical office and notify credit bureaus.

"It's a nightmare when your identity has been stolen," Nowins said. "That creates a credit nightmare, not to mention security, privacy and everything else."

Three Henderson Police detectives spoke with Metro Police on Tuesday to determine whether some specific burglaries were related, Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul said, but they determined that those burglaries were unrelated. The departments will continue a dialogue, he said.

Metro Police discovered what appeared to be a counterfeit check lab at a condominium during a drug raid earlier this week, but it's unclear if the computers that were being used in the forgeries are connected to the office burglaries.

Sgt. Shane Robb of Metro's forgery section said police found "two cartloads" of printers, monitors and three or four whole computers. Detectives are trying to determine where the equipment was stolen from.