A Pace professor allegedly had his school-issued MacBook Pro stolen out of his office in Choate House on Mon., Nov. 14.

Criminal Justice and Security Professor Dr. Hasan Arslan packed up the MacBook and left his office to go to the gym. He turned his office light off and closed the door, but did not lock it since he left his keys in the office, according to Hasan. The laptop was missing from his bag when he returned.

“I remember vividly packing up the [MacBook], zipping it up, changing my clothes at around [4:55 PM],” Hasan said.”I think there was mostly nobody [on this floor of Choate] only one [CRJ adjunct office] faculty. When I came back at around six I changed my shoes and checked my lap bag, it felt light. I opened it up and nothing.”

Hasan looked around his office to see if he misplaced it, before concluding that it was stolen and called Pace Security.

Security Guard Hector Aracena took a report and called the Mount Pleasant Police Department, who dispatched officer Benjamin Spindler who classified the crime as larceny in the police report.

The Information Technology department told Hasan that the laptop is equipped with a GPS tracker, so if someone were to use the laptop they could wipe out all of its information.

Hasan says he didn’t lose any important information on the laptop since he had backed up its information days prior to the alleged theft.

“I cleaned up my laptop, there were a few word files left, but it wasn’t important,” Hasan said. “I could easily recover that, but nothing was important thank God. My research, any important documents considered to be used for a research project where already saved.”

This is the second time Hasan has something allegedly stolen from his office.

The first incident was around six months ago; when an iPad went missing. He suspects the incidents might be connected.

“I was only gone one hour, from five to six,” Hasan said. “This tells me that maybe somebody knows me, somebody knows my schedule, or maybe it was just random. They shouldn’t know that the door wasn’t locked. The door was shut and the light was off, and all the other doors [in Choate] were locked. So how do you know that this door wasn’t locked? You must test it and attempt to break it.”

Hasan is surprised that the alleged perpetrator only took the laptop since he also left his wallet, keys, jacket, cell phone and iPad in the office.

“Nothing was taken, nothing was disturbed,” Hasan said. “The only thing I noticed was that [the Xbox 360 box was moved]. I believe maybe they checked the Xbox [box], it was empty, though.”

The laptop costs $1500, according to the Mount Pleasant PD’s police report.

Hasan is currently using his persona computer as a replacement for his allegedly stolen laptop.