The office of the Minister of Internal Administration confirmed on Thursday that the building housing the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration, located on São Mamede Street in Lisbon, was the target of an “intrusion,” during which “some computers were stolen.”
In a statement, Minister Margarida Blasco’s office added that, “according to what has been ascertained, such intrusion was only possible by climbing a neighboring building that is currently under renovation.”
“The time at which the events occurred and the scaffolding coverage may have facilitated its use for this improper purpose,” the statement reads, adding that “some computers were stolen, some of which had not yet been used as they were reserve/replacement units.”
The minister’s office assured that the “situation is being monitored by the competent criminal investigation entities,” and therefore, “it is not appropriate to disclose any other data or facts, as this may hinder the ongoing investigation.”
The news was first reported by Observador on Thursday, which stated that “several offices” were “rummaged through” and eight laptop computers were stolen.
According to the online newspaper, the theft allegedly occurred around 5:00 AM on Wednesday, and the alert was only given hours later to the Public Security Police (PSP) agent on permanent duty at the General Secretariat when employees arrived at the site and noticed that “several offices were messy and showed signs of having been searched.”
One suspicion is that the theft was perpetrated by someone who entered through one of the windows on the 6th floor, using the scaffolding of the adjacent building under construction.
One of the stolen computers belonged to Teresa Costa, Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Internal Administration.
The security guard at the entrance “apparently did not notice anything,” and the theft was not recorded by security cameras as they are “out of order.”
A PSP source confirmed to Lusa that the burglary alert was given at 9:52 AM on Wednesday by the police officer on duty in the building after noticing that offices had been searched. Another police source indicated that various computer equipment from the offices was stolen.
[News updated at 8:49 PM]
