A 70-year-old Moreno Valley Unified School District employee accused of stealing $750,000 worth of equipment had shipped unspecified property to Africa and planned to retire soon to the continent, said a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy who said he feared the man would not show up to court.

The deputy said Abdul Sheriff Kamara has worked for the district for 26 years in information technology and admitted to taking the equipment, which included laptops.

The deputy, in a declaration asking a judge to increase Kamara’s bail to $500,000 from $5,000, said he considered Kamara a flight risk. A judge granted an increase to $250,000.

But on Tuesday, Kamara was released from custody without having to post bail after pleading not guilty to two counts of embezzlement and one count of second-degree burglary in Superior Court in Riverside.

Attorney Akindele David Akintimoye said in an interview Thursday that Kamara hasn’t been to Africa in 25 years and has few ties to the continent. Kamara is a U.S. citizen who has worked for the district for 26 years and surrendered his U.S. passport Tuesday, Akintimoye said.

The attorney declined to comment further, saying he is just now reviewing the evidence. Kamara is due back in court June 10.

The investigation began March 19 when Canyon Springs High Principal Sean Roberson told a school resource officer that an employee said he had locked seven laptops in a cabinet in an IT office March 13 but that they were missing when he returned after the weekend.

A review of electronic badge records showed that Kamara had entered the IT office on March 14, and that surveillance images showed Kamara leaving campus three times carrying a dark-colored bag, the deputy wrote.

“On each occasion, Kamara appeared to struggle while carrying the bag, indicating it contained heavy items consistent with multiple laptop computers,” the deputy wrote.

Kamara was contacted at his workplace, March Mountain High. He told the school resource officer that he had been at Canyon Springs to provide IT support for an event and had retrieved Ethernet cords from the IT office. His personal laptop and work tools were in the bags, he said.

Confronted with the surveillance images, however, Kamara admitted to taking the seven laptops, the deputy wrote. A search of Kamara’s Moreno Valley home found equipment labeled as property of the district, the deputy wrote. The district estimated the property’s value at $500,000, with a full inventory still pending. A sheriff’s news release later pegged the value at $750,000.

The district is saying little about the thefts.

The Southern California News Group asked spokeswoman Anahi Velasco how much of the equipment the district had reported stolen, or whether officials had simply considered it misplaced, or how much of it officials even knew was missing. She was also asked what the district was doing since the laptops’ disappearance to safeguard the publicly owned property in the district’s care against theft.

“The district is fully cooperating with law enforcement and details cannot be shared as this is an active investigation,” Velasco wrote in an email response.

Velasco did not respond to a subsequent message seeking Kamara’s employment status.

Superintendent Alejandro Ruvalcaba could not be reached for comment this past week, with the district on spring break.