Nearly $500,000 worth of equipment stolen was from the Democratic National Committee during last year’s Charlotte convention, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Officials reported $496,000 in missing equipment, including tens of thousands of dollars in tech items like BlackBerrys issued during the convention. For example, of the 600 BlackBerrys that the DNC had for the event, only 383 were returned.
Additional items reported to the police were multiple MacBook Pro laptops, iPads, iPod Nanos, and computer printers.
A representative for the DNC said that it is normal for things to go missing.
"It’s commonplace for stuff to go missing. This is very typical, even though we have an inventory system," Joseph Sandler, a Washington, D.C., lawyer handling the issue for the committee, told the Observer.
Sandler believes that much of the lost equipment was simply "kept by DNC staffers who had used the equipment."
Although organizers are writing off the lost equipment as commonplace, host committee chairman Dan Murrey told the Observer that filing a police report was a necessary step towards filing an insurance claim.
The DNC faces large debt obligations; the organization is still carrying millions in debt after the election. According to its most recent Federal Election Committee filing last month, the DNC has finally began to pay back the $15 million in loans it took from union-owned Amalgamated Bank in the month leading up to the convention.
The organization paid back less than a million dollars, leaving it in the hole for $14.25 million.