LANGLEY — Roughly $2,000 worth of electronic equipment and cash was stolen from student backpacks at the Langley Middle School Wednesday afternoon.

Two ninth-grade high school students, a boy and a girl, allegedly stole nine or 10 iPods MP3 players and a PlayStation video-game console from the locker room at the middle school during gym class on March 14.

According to Bob Herzberg, chief of the Langley Police Department, the students were first noticed on campus without permission.

“Principal Rod Merrill was dealing with that issue, then he returned to his office and found a number of students reporting that their backpacks had been broken into during PE class,” he said.

“About 3 p.m., we contacted the students downtown. They were booked in the Island County Juvenile Detention Center in Coupeville,” Herzberg said.

The pair suspected of the thefts are former Langley Middle School students.

“It’s disturbing how they had this all planned out. They knew kids left valuables in their backpacks during

PE rather than locked up in the lockers,” Herzberg said. “The two even took the day off from school.”

Serial numbers on the electronic items will help officials return the items to their rightful owners.

Herzberg said theft of valuables from backpacks is an ongoing problem.

“As long as kids carry valuable electronic equipment in their backpacks and leave them lying around, they are vulnerable to theft,” he said.

Herzberg said a digital camera was also stolen from a backpack at the bus stop at Third and Anthes last week. An arrest has been made in that case.