Stolen personal data for 26.5 million veterans and military personnel <A HREF="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060609/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/vets_data_theft">may have been erased by teenagers</A> who sold the computer equipment, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Thursday. He explained that the burglary occurred in an Aspen Hill, Md., neighborhood in which there had been a pattern of thefts by young burglars who took computer equipment, wiped them clean of the data and then sold them on college campus or high schools. "We remain hopeful this was a common random theft and that no use will be made of this data," Nicholson said. "However, certainly we cannot count on that."