By SANDRA GONZALES, Mercury News Staff Writer March 31, 1991 Publication: San Jose Mercury News (CA)

For 20-year-old Craig Jacobson Jr., police say, the career path was a short one from streetwise kid to multimillion-dollar computer thief. At 18, Jacobson left his father's home in the affluent retirement community of Longboat Key, Fla., to seek his fortune.
He started slowly -- as a security guard. But police believe that during a 14-month period, Jacobson stole and sold more than $10 million worth of computer equipment from Maine to Fremont and San Jose.

The cocky Jacobson, in numerous taped interviews with the FBI and local police, not only admitted the heists but also bragged about most of them, according to court affidavits.

His fast-track life as a computer-firm burglar came to an abrupt halt in late February when Massachusetts state police arrested him as he sipped a drink in the Delta Airlines first- class lounge at Boston's Logan Airport. Moments earlier, he had tried to pass himself off as an FBI and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent in an effort to get the necessary papers to carry a firearm on board a plane.

Interviews with the FBI, police across the country and others who know Jacobson reveal a portrait of a young, smooth- talking con man with a penchant for the finer things in life. A guy who would cruise the country looking for easy pickings at firms that make $10,000 computers, mother boards and laser printers.

''He should have been in a super spy book," said Deputy Sheriff George Bunker of the Washington County Sheriff's Department in Machias, Maine.

''He'd show up in town with a Jaguar equipped with a car phone, fax. For a 20-year-old, he sure knew the ropes."

The good life

A onetime Los Gatos resident, the Rolex-wearing Jacobson journeyed cross-country in Cadillacs, Jaguars and Porsches. He often stayed in expensive hotels, flashing an array of credit cards. He took occasional fishing trips to Mexico. According to police, Jacobson used different guises and aliases while casing computer firms and electronics companies. Most of those struck were small outfits with poor security.

Sometimes he posed as a security official by wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a walkie-talkie. Other times he'd pose as a cop.

Once he picked a firm to burglarize, he would bribe guards, smash windows or simply walk in after obtaining a master key, police said.

A security guard spotted his Burgundy Porsche a few minutes before he allegedly burglarized Grid Systems Corp. in Fremont of more than $140,000 worth of laptop computers. When questioned, Jacobson told the guard he had car trouble.

''He slipped by people just by talking nice," Bunker said.

Jacobson was born in Portsmouth, N.H. He enrolled at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, Fla., near Longboat Key in August 1985, but there is no record that he graduated. Both Jacobson's parents, who are now divorced, refused to comment.

A next-door neighbor in Longboat Key remembers Jacobson as an affable and handsome boy with dramatic swings in behavior.

''He would help look after a quadriplegic who lived in the neighborhood, then I'd hear how he'd been arrested," said Catherine Fernald.

'A line three miles long'

Police in Longboat Key said they met Jacobson soon after he moved to the beach town on the Gulf of Mexico.

''I always had run-ins with him and he always had an explanation for everything. He had a line three miles long," said Longboat Key police Sgt. John Kintz.

As a juvenile, Jacobson was convicted on five counts of grand larceny, police said.

After Jacobson moved from Longboat Key, he would return two or three times a year to visit his father, Kintz said.

''Once I heard he was in town, I kept an eye on him," Kintz said.

Other investigators began keeping an eye on Jacobson, too.

In January, police in Longboat Key arrested Jacobson on outstanding traffic warrants. During a search of his car, police said, they found several computer invoices matching those stolen from Grid on Dec. 10. Soon after he was released, the FBI and police in Arizona, Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, Illinois, Maine and California were tracking Jacobson.

In the Bay Area, investigators linked him to 49 computer firm burglaries -- including $1 million in computer thefts from firms in Fremont alone. In addition, he is suspected of having burglarized 47 firms in San Jose.

By mid-February, Jacobson faced federal charges of interstate transportation of stolen property in Tampa, Fla.

After his arrest in Boston, Jacobson was eager to talk. He told police he got his start while working as a security guard at a computer firm. He had been bribed by a thief to assist in a burglary, and then began to do thefts on his own.

Took pride in his work

He delighted in giving police tidbits of information, claiming he did only burglaries that paid well -- enough to buy a Porsche.

''He was proud of what he had done," said San Jose police detective Sgt. Paul Farlow.

On some of the burglaries, Jacobson told police, he worked with three associates -- one of whom he met at a pornographic book store in East Palo Alto. Shortly after, the pair flew to Chicago, where they pulled off another heist. The associates, who still are being investigated, also helped him rent cars and load loot.

Police believe Jacobson's fences were D.H.A. Associates in Downey and Data Equipment Supply in Bell Gardens, where he would either ship the stolen computer equipment or deliver it in person.

In February, searches of the owners' homes and the businesses recovered $180,000 worth of stolen property, including 23 of the 30 laptop computers stolen during the Grid Systems burglary. The owners are under investigation but have not been arrested.

Jacobson now spends his time in a one-bunk cell in Suffolk County Jail pending extradition to Maine, where he is wanted on burglary and theft charges. It is unclear when he might face charges in California.

Boston court officers describe him as sloppy, unkempt and unpopular. They said he often gets into fights, even during the short trips to and from the East Boston Middle District Court.

But he is remembered differently.

''He was well-spoken and intelligent when I knew him," said Kintz, the Longboat Key cop. "Always there, with his credit cards, cars, living the high life. What a guy."