Suspect in Target theft had graphing calculators in his car. What are they worth?

Katie Wiseman, Indianapolis Star
Updated ·3 min read
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Math is hard. And sometimes it requires more than counting on your fingers or using your smartphone's calculator. More complicated math can require a graphing calculator.

Those Texas Instruments devices you may remember from high school math courses have been in the Indianapolis-area news lately, but not because of math. A man arrested in Fishers recently on theft charges was found to have several of them in his car, likely worth around $3,000, based on prices listed online.

Why would someone steal them? Here's what to know about the programmable graphing calculators.

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What happened in the recent Fishers Target theft?

Fishers Police Department shared in a news release that they arrested a man on Sunday, Jan. 28, who is suspected in various Target cases throughout the U.S. with an estimated total theft value of $90,000 dollars.

When Fishers Police searched the suspect's car, they found a large number of graphing calculators still in the packaging. Here's what they said was in the car:

  • 23 Texas Instrument TI-84 Plus CE calculators

  • Two Texas Instrument TI-84 Plus calculators

  • One Texas Instrument TI-Nspire CX 2 calculator

The man was held on local charges, but has warrants out for his arrest in Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio, Minnesota, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Illinois, the Fishers Police Department told IndyStar.

This isn't the first time graphing calculators have been a target for theft

While the Fishers Police told IndyStar this is not something they have seen before locally, this has happened before elsewhere.

In 2010, The Cabinet Press reported that a high school teacher in New Hampshire was arrested for stealing and selling school calculators on eBay. It was estimated he may have sold up to 44 calculators over a span of three years.

In 2013, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that a couple in Utah was arrested in connection with a theft of 108 graphing calculators from Walmarts in the area. The total estimated cost of those stolen calculators was $15,000.

And in 2023, New York police were searching for a teenagers suspected of sneaking into Bronx schools and taking more than $40,000 worth of calculators, NBC's New York affiliate reported.

How much do graphing calculators cost?

The Texas Instrument calculators listed in the Fishers case all range anywhere from $100 to $170 at different retailers.

Who typically buys these calculators?

Students (and their parents) are perhaps the most common purchasers of these calculators. Depending on the courses, high schoolers and college students may be required to have one.

High school students may need such a calculator if they are taking Algebra II or Calculus. College students studying math, engineering, finance or statistics, would be most likely to need them.

What do graphing calculators do?

These programmable graphing calculators have backlit displays and are rechargable. They are powerful little computer devices, just in a different way than your smart phone. They typically come with preloaded apps for graphing and calculating equations.

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You can play games on a TI-84 Plus calculator

Since it is a tiny computer, you can play games on it. You can choose from several different games to download onto your TI-84 Plus calculators.

Just keep in mind that just like any computer, it only has a certain amount of data storage and games may cause the calculator to lag depending on the size of the games.

Katie Wiseman is a trending news intern at IndyStar. Contact her at klwiseman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @itskatiewiseman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fishers Target hit by Texas Instrument graphing calculator thefts