Campus Alert Archive
UCLA

55 MacBooks, One Smashed Window: A Weekend Library Break-In UCLA Police Cracked in Four Days

AI-generated · every claim is source-linked
CAthefttimely warningmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

A burglar smashed a window to break into the Charles E. Young Research Library over the weekend of November 8-9, 2014, and made off with 55 MacBook laptops worth roughly $33,000 from a storage room. UCLA Police Department identified and arrested former student Seyed Ali Pakizehkar Hesari days later after a student at the campus gym recognized his clothing from police images circulated in the Daily Bruin.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
University of California, Los Angeles
Public R1 · CA
~40,000 studentsBruinAlert
Official alert policy
Read when and how UCLA says it will use BruinAlert — summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstruction426 chars
UCLA Police Crime Alert: Burglary/Grand Theft. Sometime between the evening of Saturday, November 8 and the morning of Sunday, November 9, an unknown suspect broke a window to gain entry to the Charles E. Young Research Library and stole approximately 55 laptop computers from a storage area. The suspect is described as a man wearing UCLA Bruins-branded clothing. Anyone with information is asked to contact UCPD immediately.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

News coverage described police circulating images of the suspect wearing UCLA Bruins gear as they sought the public's help identifying him, a detail this reconstruction reflects, though the literal UCPD alert text was not reproduced in any available source
The suspect's distinctive branded clothing became the key identifying detail: a student recognized it in person at the campus gym days after seeing the same images in the Daily Bruin
The theft targeted a storage room within the library rather than laptops in active use by patrons, distinguishing it from more common in-the-moment laptop thefts from study areas
FOLLOW-UPWebsite
Approximate reconstructionDaily Bruin coverage of the UCPD arrest announcement439 chars
UCPD Arrests Suspect in YRL Laptop Theft. University police have arrested Seyed Ali Pakizehkar Hesari, a former UCLA student, in connection with the theft of 55 laptop computers from the Charles E. Young Research Library. Hesari was identified after a student recognized his clothing from images released to the media. A search of a residence in Hollywood recovered 53 of the 55 stolen laptops. Hesari was booked on two counts of burglary.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

This follow-up text is reconstructed from Daily Bruin's arrest coverage; UCPD's original public statement was not reproduced verbatim in available sources
Recovering 53 of 55 stolen laptops in a single search is an unusually high recovery rate for a property-crime case in this archive
The suspect was a former UCLA student, not a current student, employee, or member of the public, an ambiguous affiliation status distinct from most theft cases in this archive
Context

Background

The Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA houses research collections and, at the time, a storage room of loaner laptops. Sometime during the weekend of November 8-9, 2014, a burglar smashed an exterior window and a second interior door window to reach the storage room, making off with 55 MacBook laptops valued at approximately $33,000. UCLA Police Department released images of the suspect, notable for his UCLA Bruins-branded clothing, and asked the public for help identifying him. The case broke when a student working out at the John Wooden Center recognized the suspect's shoes, shirt, and sweatpants from the police images circulated in the Daily Bruin. UCPD detained Hesari, a former UCLA student, on November 11, and a subsequent search of his mother's Hollywood home recovered 53 of the 55 stolen laptops. He was later sentenced to jail time after the case moved through Los Angeles County court.
Analysis

Key Findings

55 laptops stolen in a single break-in represents one of the larger single-incident property-crime losses in this archive, valued at roughly $33,000
The case was solved unusually quickly, within about four days, largely because a campus community member personally recognized the suspect's clothing from police-released images rather than through forensic evidence
Recovery of 53 of the 55 stolen laptops from a single search is a markedly higher recovery rate than most theft cases in this archive, most of which end without recovered property
The suspect was a former student rather than a current one, illustrating a recurring ambiguity in campus crime reporting around individuals with a past but not current institutional affiliation
Outcome
Seyed Ali Pakizehkar Hesari, 29, a former UCLA student, was arrested on November 11, 2014 and booked on two counts of burglary. A search of his mother's home in Hollywood recovered an additional 53 of the 55 stolen laptops. He was later sentenced to jail time.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Man steals 55 MacBook laptops from YRL (Daily Bruin)
    dailybruin.com
    archived copy
  2. Student Paper
    UCPD arrests former UCLA student for YRL laptop theft (Daily Bruin)
    dailybruin.com
    archived copy
  3. News
    55 laptop computers stolen from UCLA research library (ABC7 Los Angeles)
    abc7.com
    archived copy
  4. News
    Suspect arrested in theft of 55 computers from UCLA (ABC7 Los Angeles)
    abc7.com
    archived copy
  5. News
    Man sentenced to jail in theft of 55 UCLA laptop computers (MyNewsLA)
    mynewsla.com
    archived copy
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "University of California, Los Angeles: 55 MacBooks, One Smashed Window: A Weekend Library Break-In UCLA Police Cracked in Four Days." Incident of November 8, 2014. Added July 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/ucla-young-research-library-laptop-theft-2014-11-08/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
theftburglarylaptop-theftlibrarytimely-warningarrest-maderecovered-propertycalifornia2014
Added July 2026Updated July 2026Via ingestion