The thief, who was wearing a fluorescent vest, took two boxes of phones while a delivery van was being unloaded at about 10:50 GMT on Friday.

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Kennedy High School in Bellmore on Long Island because the suspected thief was the son of a businessman who had wined and dined police brass and made generous donations to a charity that is building a new police academy.

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The little girl, who was unhurt in the attack, testified that she had thought Geele was a thief and had asked him to go away.

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But if the Dallas paper legally obtained documents stolen by a third party, precedent suggests it is the thief and not the newspaper who would be subject to prosecution, even if the newspaper should have known that the information was stolen.

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During the theft, a motion detector was activated, alerting a guard who chased one thief, but was unable to catch him.

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