Detectives seek links to Sprint robbery

Detectives are trying to determine whether last weekend's heist of valuable telephone computer equipment from Sprint is related to similar thefts elsewhere in the country.

"This has happened in other locations throughout the country, and we're looking at the other incidents," Lt. John Alamshaw, who heads Metro's robbery detail, told the Sun on Wednesday.

But he refused to say where the other thefts have taken place.

Alamshaw said detectives have been in contact with other law enforcement agencies, but he declined to identify them.

Alamshaw, acting Las Vegas FBI chief Walt Stowe and Sprint spokeswoman Detra Page all said they believe the suspects stole the equipment with the intent of selling it.

"There's a market all over the world for what they took," Alamshaw said.

Mexico is one country where this kind of equipment could be fenced, one knowledgeable source said.

"We're operating under the assumption that this was a crime for profit," Stowe said. "We don't believe it was a plot to disrupt the communications system."

Stowe said the FBI currently is playing a subordinate role to Metro in the investigation. Agents of the FBI's local terrorism squad have been assigned to assist police.

The FBI, Stowe said, is acting under the auspices of its National Infrastructure Protection Program, which is charged with keeping vigilance over such things as water systems, communications systems and utilities across the country.

Alamshaw said he has three detectives working full time on the case, which so far has yet to identify any of the suspects.

Three to five robbers in ski masks rushed employees Sunday at Sprint's central office on Spring Mountain Road just west of Jones Boulevard and stole the computer equipment. Several workers were attacked with stun guns in the robbery that left about 75,000 telephone customers in southwest Las Vegas without phone service much of the day.

Detectives believe the suspects spent less than 20 minutes on the property, which is surrounded by a block wall topped with barbed wire.

Page declined to identify the stolen equipment and disclose its value, but she described the loss as "substantial."

She said the computer components can run a telephone system and allow customers to make calls.

"It's equipment that would be of no use to the average citizen," Page said.

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