A warrant for the arrest of a former Iowa State student has been issued in connection with several campus computer burglaries, Department of Public Safety officials said Tuesday.

DPS Associate Director Jerry Stewart said Marshall G. McCalley, 1997 graduate of ISU, is suspected in at least two of the string of computer burglaries on campus.

As of press time, McCalley was still at large.

Computer burglaries have plagued ISU since June, including a July 6 heist of the General Services Building in which $13,000 worth of CPUs and motherboards was stolen and an Aug. 15 burglary of the College of Design Building in which thieves came away with $3,400 worth of equipment.

The charges against McCalley stem from an incident that occurred during the early morning hours on Monday.

According to police records, a DPS officer on a bicycle at about 1:14 a.m. noticed a white Dodge Caravan parked on Morrill Road near the English Office Building.

The officer questioned the owner of the van, McCalley, and upon investigation found numerous pieces of computer equipment and audio/visual equipment with university identification tags.

Later that night, officers discovered the English Office Building and nearby Carver Hall had both been burglarized, and the items taken matched descriptions and the identification numbers of the equipment in McCalley’s van.

Stewart said the van was located at about 5 a.m. west of the Memorial Union. The van was seized by DPS until search warrants for the van, McCalley’s Des Moines apartment and McCalley’s parents’ house in Boone could be obtained through the Story County Attorney’s Office.

McCalley had lived at his parents’ house before recently moving to Des Moines, Stewart said.

DPS Cpt. Gene Deisinger said the search warrants were obtained by about 5 p.m. on Monday, and all three searches were executed simultaneously.

Deisinger, who took part in the search of McCalley’s Des Moines apartment, 3523 University Ave. #20H, said the single bedroom apartment was filled with electronic equipment.

“There was a large table in the living area that was covered completely with computer parts and had other items under it and to the sides,” he said. “The equipment occupied probably about 25 percent of the living area and maybe more.”

McCalley was the sole tenant on the lease and was believed to be the only occupant of the apartment, Deisinger said.

In a three-hour search, DPS officers and Des Moines police officers seized at least $10,000 worth of equipment they believed to be stolen, enough to fill two DPS pickup trucks, Deisinger said.

“And that estimate is probably a conservative one,” he said.

One color laser printer taken was worth $3,000 alone, Stewart said.

Much of the equipment taken from McCalley’s apartment had been modified and upgraded, and many of the serial tags had been removed, he said.

“It appears that someone involved with this had considerable knowledge of computer hardware and software,” he said.

Also found in the apartment was equipment that may have stolen from the Boone Community School District, Stewart said.

Some of the items found included: refrigerators, small appliances, CPUs, computer monitors, printers, audio/visual equipment, keyboards, speakers, fax/modems, data transfer switches, laptop computers and motherboards.

Stewart said the search of the Dodge Caravan unearthed about $3,000 worth of equipment.

No equipment was found at the Boone residence.

Stewart said DPS may attempt to obtain more arrest warrants, either to charge McCalley with more counts of burglary or possibly for other suspects involved in the thefts. He would not indicate if other individuals are suspected to have helped McCalley.

Although McCalley has not yet been apprehended, DPS believes he still has acquaintances in Ames, Stewart said. Anyone with information on McCalley’s whereabouts is urged to call DPS at 294-4428.

The immediate task at hand for DPS, however, is to try to sort out all of the seized property and return the items to their proper owners.

“We will be contacting victims from prior cases and asking them to identify their equipment,” he said. “It will be a frustrating process because the Story County Attorney’s Office will be deciding when the property can be released, not us.”

And although DPS officials don’t think they’ve completely solved the ISU computer burglary spree, they were pleased that some progress is being made.

“It’s nice to see our officers are asking the right questions and are out there doing their jobs,” Deisinger said.

Stewart agreed, pointing out that many extra hours have been put in over the summer and this semester to stop these thefts.

“This department has put in a lot of time and energy on this case, and it is certainly rewarding to get some of the equipment back,” he said. “Staffing levels were increased and all of our officers, including our student officers, really have been working hard.”