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One vehicle was stolen, one was found and another was vandalized one day last week at Sherwood High School.

During school hours, a teacher's vehicle was stolen from the school's front parking lot, adjacent to busy Olney-Sandy Spring Road (Route 108).

Although it was later recovered, its owner is shocked by the brazen crime.

Olney resident Tanya Ratino went out to her car on Nov. 11 after a day of substitute teaching at the school to find an empty spot where she was certain she had parked her 1998 purple Dodge Caravan earlier that morning.

"I just looked at the blank space in between two other mini-vans and it wasn't there," she said. "I was shocked."

After checking with the school's security office, she reported the incident to the police.

Ratino said she expected to see the vehicle around Olney and quickly put the word out through local online message boards.

"I just assumed it was local kids and someone would see it driving around," she said.

That was not the case. Her van was recovered in a parking lot near Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., the following day.

"It was undrivable, but it's at the dealership now and we're pretty hopeful it is going to be OK," she said. "[The thieves] had actually cleaned it up and hung a pair of fuzzy dice from the rear-view mirror, like they were going to continue using it."

Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Officer Melanie Brenner said there have been no other recent incidents of car thefts from school parking lots.

"These thefts are often just crimes of opportunity," she said.

Ratino had locked the vehicle, but the thieves broke through the lock on the passenger door. They damaged the ignition and took her wallet, which had been in the locked glove box, she said.

Her credit card was used that morning at a gas station and the vehicle was recovered with a full gas tank.

Sherwood Principal William Gregory called the incident "a real shame."

"It was just a shocker," he said. "This is the first time anything like this has happened."

Gregory said a security team constantly monitors the school both inside and out, including one security officer who monitors the school's security cameras at all times. The incident was not picked up on camera.

He said another car was vandalized in the school's parking lot the same day, but officials are unsure if that is related.

"One car had a window broken, but it did not appear that anything was taken from it," he said.

Later the same evening, another stolen vehicle, a 1999 green Dodge Caravan, was recovered in Sherwood's parking lot. The doors were locked, but the engine was running.

Brenner said the owner of that vehicle had left the engine running at the Leisure World shopping center while she went into a store at about 12:30 p.m. As she left the store, she saw her vehicle driving away.

Police were called to Sherwood at 6:40 p.m. to investigate a suspicious vehicle, which was later determined to have been the vehicle stolen earlier from the shopping center.

"We are not sure if these two incidents are related," Brenner said, referring to the theft and return of the two vans.

Although she is relieved that her vehicle was recovered, Ratino remains concerned.

"This was a totally deliberate act," she said. "This should be a warning that everyone just needs to be aware; watch your stuff and watch other people's stuff."