Thomas Finnie, University of Miami Hurricanes Football Player, Arrested For Laptop Theft

Miami Hurricanes defensive back Thomas Finnie has been arrested on burglary charges relating to the theft of a laptop from a campus dorm room last week.

Finnie, a sophomore from nearby Miami Central High School, has been suspended indefinitely by the football program, reports the Associated Press.

Coral Gables police said Finnie surrendered to UM campus police Tuesday and was transported to Miami-Dade County Jail, where he was booked on charges of occupied burglary and grand theft.

According to the Miami Hurricane, police say Finnie entered a dorm room last Tuesday and stole a Macbook Pro while its owner and two other people were present. The student was “able to place an electronic message on the screen of his laptop” offering a $1,000 reward, to which 21-year-old Del’Neco Streeter responded to arrange a meeting.

But when Streeter and Finnie met the student on campus, university police officers emerged from a nearby building and a chase ensued. Streeter was caught and arrested in a nearby parking garage, charged with dealing in stolen property and resisting arrest, but Finnie escaped.

The incident prompted UM to issue an emergency text alert warning of a "black man on campus," for which the school apologized, saying the message was "incomplete."

The Miami Herald reports Finnie has two prior arrests including one for misdemeanor marijuana possession on July 20 and a 2008 third degree grand theft charge by Hialeah police, while he was still in high school.

Finnie enrolled at UM in January 2011.

"I really want to be the one to bring my family up to par; I want to be the one who makes it out," he told Hurricanesports.com last year. "I want to make my mother so proud, and that's what I really want to do. I never quit, I never want to give up, because I really want to try to get there."