Navy investigates theft of laptop computer from ship

Web posted August 21, 1998

Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va. -- A laptop computer that may contain classified information apparently was stolen from the USS Ponce, Navy officials said Wednesday.

No arrests have been made. Naval investigators are looking into whether the computer had classified material stored on it, said Cmdr. John Singley, a Navy spokesman.

Officials don't know exactly when the theft occurred, though it likely happened around the weekend of Aug. 8-9 while the ship was pierside at the Norfolk Naval Base. The Ponce is between overseas deployments

Laptop computers typically are used for administrative and training purposes, but classified information is sometimes stored on them, Singley said.

The Ponce is an amphibious transport dock that was commissioned in 1971.