Drug addict teacher allegedly took Macs

By day, Kathleen Kremis taught fifth graders at Ethan Allen Elementary School. But by night, the teacher allegedly developed a nasty heroin habit, which then led to her and her husband stealing laptops from the very kids she taught.

That’s according to Philadelphia police, who charged Kremis, 35, and Thomas Perry, 37, with stealing 42 computers from the North Philadelphia school. Authorities were tipped off in August by a pawn shop owner where the Apple Macs were sold. The pawn shop owner told police stickers had been used to cover the tag that read “Property of the School District of Philadelphia.”

Police launched a joint investigation with school police to identify Kremis, who’s taught at the school for five years, as the culprit.

“A joint investigation really got started once we had an incident where a significant number of laptops disappeared from the laptop carts,” district spokesman Fernando Gallard said. “That led us to take a closer look at who might have access to those laptops.”

Gallard said officials are still trying to determine if other equipment was taken. A search of the couple’s home — which had no running water — did not turn up any other school district property, according to Capt. Len Ditchkofsky, head of Major Crimes.

Ditchkofsky said the couple got more than $5,000 for the stolen merchandise.

“She was a heroin addict,” he said. “It was done to support her habit.”