ROWLAND HEIGHTS - Nearly eight months after burglars stole nine computers from an elementary school computer lab, Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies Wednesday returned four of them to the students of Killian Elementary School.

Three deputies returned the recovered computers during a special visit to Fajardo Elementary, which had been closed due to budget cuts but is housing Killian students during construction and modernization at that school site.

In order to recover the iMac desktop computers, investigators said they worked with Apple, Inc. to find out who was logging on to the stolen computers, which the school purchased in 2006.

"We were very upset and shocked when our school was broken into and our computers were stolen," Killian Principal Jason Gass said. "The kids were extremely sad when they found out. My initial thought was that they were gone. We didn't anticipate recovering any computers."

No arrests have been made, said Deputy Tony Gonzales.

The computers were recovered when two search warrants were served in the Palmdale/Lancaster area, he said.

"(The people who had the computers) bought them a little cheaper than the actual price," he said. "They did not know, according to them, that they were stolen. They were looking for a good deal." 

Around 4 a.m. Sept. 23, surveillance video shows three hooded suspects burglarizing the Rowland Heights school, Gonzales said. Their faces could not be seen.

One suspect broke a window and entered the classroom to hand the other suspects the computers, Gonzales said.

Since the nine computers were stolen, some of the fourth- and fifth-grade classes at Killian haven't been getting computer time like they used to, said school officials, who applauded the deputies' work.

"While teachers could normally take their whole class to the lab, they could no longer do that, or kids would have to double up," said Killian Officer Manager Ocean Wallin.

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