The Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) recently reported the theft of 1,689 iPhones, which it believes were stolen from a locked room that limited staff had access to. While the phones are provided for free to the department under the terms of a contract state agencies have with the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), their estimated value was $87,260, which the department could have claimed as an account credit if the phones were recycled.
The theft was discovered on July 8 and reported to the Auditors of State Accounts through monthly loss reports. According to the report, the phones were stolen from a locked room used by DAS’ Bureau of Information Technology Solutions (BITS) to support DCF staff. Three BITS staff and facility custodians had access to the room, as did DCF engineering staff, who have a master key.
The stolen phones include iPhone 11s, iPhone 12s, iPhone 12 minis, iPhone 13s, and iPhone SE 2022s. They were purchased between April 2020 and March 2024 and had been issued, returned, and were waiting to be upcycled.
According to the report DCF submitted to state auditors, DCF notified the Connecticut State Police and the Office of Legislative Research, as well as state auditors, as soon as the theft was discovered. They then searched the facility to ensure the phones and not been misplaced and conducted a full inventory of phones to identify the serial numbers of the stolen phones.
An arrest for the theft has not been publicly announced.
While BITS staff logged and tracked returns of all phones slated to be recycled, DCF identified several failures by the DAS team as contributing to the theft.
“DAS BITS Helpdesk staff made the keys to the inventory room available to all Helpdesk staff at any time. Contracted housekeeping staff should have had no reason to have access to the inventory room. While DAS BITS Helpdesk staff did track all of the phones upon return, they didn’t inventory the phones at any interval after their return. DAS BITS Helpdesk staff didn’t facilitate regular recycle return of phones with DCT (to reduce inventory).” DAS’ report notes.
Following the theft, DAS has put several changes in place, including rekeying the inventory room so that employees must swipe a card to enter and creating a log of who has accessed the room. DCF will also now require BITS staff to enter the inventory room two at a time. Housekeeping staff will also no longer have access.
In addition, DCF stated it is “evaluting it ability to increase its Asset Management team by 2 positions.” The new positions would be posted at the BITS helpdesk and complete a monthly inventory of phones. BITS staff will also now be required to recycle returned phones quarterly.
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