After a decade working at Kennesaw State University, police say Derrick Smith took $100,000 of technology and sold some of it on eBay.
Smith, 33, was booked into Cobb County jail on Oct. 16 with felony theft charges, records show.
Tammy DeMel, spokeswoman with KSU, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday that campus police started investigating in February 2018 after IT reported some missing equipment. The school has since made some changes to how it handles incoming purchases.
She said campus police “identified it as a possible case of internal theft and contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” which took over in March 2018.
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Smith was the manager of central receiving and distribution at KSU.
A warrant written by a GBI agent alleges that Smith took incoming shipments containing 12 Cisco transceiver modules meant for the networking department and 11 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 computers mistakenly shipped to KSU.
The modules, which are used in large-scale computer systems, cost $78,000. He allegedly sold four of them on an eBay store run by his fiancee. The other eight were “recovered with the assistance of Mr. Smith’s attorney,” according to the warrant.
He sold 10 of the 11 laptops on that same eBay store, the warrant alleges. The cops got in touch with three of the purchasers who gave serial numbers that matched the stolen laptops. The total loss was $14,300, the agent wrote.
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After this, KSU's Central Receiving and Distribution warehouses developed "physical and procedural controls to provide increased security of items, including a system that provides documentation of chain of custody for all items coming into the facility," DeMel said.
Smith joined KSU full time in 2008, she said. He was placed on administrative leave in March pending the outcome of the investigation and resigned in April.
Smith bonded out of Cobb jail about six hours after being booked on a $100,000 bond, records show. His next court day was not listed online.
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