A former professor at VSU was allegedly caught with a stolen VSU laptop during a warranted search of his office by the Western Kentucky University Police Department.
On March 22, Captain Lee McKinney of the WKU PD contacted VSU police about a HP Compaq tc4200 laptop found in Dr. Mark Fenster’s office at WKU. The laptop contained a VSU property tag on it, which is placed on all laptops that belong to the university. Sgt. Matt Maestas of the VSU Investigations department told McKinney that he would look into the ownership of the laptop with the university’s IT department.
According to the police report, the IT department was able to pull up the receipt of the wayward laptop, showing that it was bought by the university for $1,639 in 2005.
A physical search in IT’s inventory proved that the laptop was not located within VSU, and further investigation revealed that the laptop had not been turned into VSU after the non-contract renewal of employment for Dr. Fenster on June of 2006. Police say that Dr. Fenster had reported the laptop stolen from his car, but took the laptop with him when he transferred to WKU.
In response to the discovered theft, the VSUPD issued a warrant for the arrest of Dr. Fenster. Sometime after the warrant was issued, Dr. Fenster turned himself into the VSU police. He was processed in Valdosta and paid a $2,500 bond set by the Magistrate court.
“He had been talking to his lawyer,” said Lt. Cindy Cobb of VSU’s Investigations and Communications Department. “He paid the bond to stay out of jail, but he’ll still have to return to Georgia to appear for his court date.”
Dr. Fenster was an assistant professor of Educational Leadership when he was employed at VSU. It has yet to be revealed to the public why the WKU police had a search warrant for his office. Dr. Bud Schlinker, the department head of Educational Administration, refused to comment on any matters concerning Dr. Fenster.