A trio of juniors from the upper-crust community of Palos Verdes Estates was arrested this week.

Smart little buggers allegedly broke into Palos Verdes High School, which they attend, and changed grades for classmates — and not for free, police tell the Weekly. No, this was strictly a market-driven endeavor, it seems:

$300 $500 bucks for a bump up from B to an A, one student told cops.

Ouch.

They allegedly charged $50 to improve a test score, cops said. Apparently teachers noticed none of this until the matter was brought to the school's administration recently by a whistle-blower.

The three had been running this scheme since the beginning of the school year, at least, and maybe even did it last year, Palos Verdes Estates police Sgt. Steve Barber tells us:

They basically admitted to having done it since the beginning of the school year.

A little inspiration from the '80s movie War Games?

The three students allegedly broke into school several times, targeting a janitor's room, where a master key to the school was located, Barber said.

Armed with that, they headed to four classrooms and planted “keylogger” thumb drivers in the USB ports of teachers' computers. Those then recorded user names and passwords that the suspects could use to log into the system and change grades remotely.

Some of the students who had their grades changed were bound for top colleges and probably didn't even need the bumps, according to KNX 1070 Newsradio.

The three were arrested on suspicion of burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Barber says about 8 students had their grades changed but that the number could rise to as many as 20 as cops continue to investigate.

The Daily Breeze, which broke the story, reports that two of the three “have been recommended for expulsion” and that some of the beneficiaries of the grade changes “were suspended for receiving stolen tests and information.”

The three were released to their parents, who should be proud. Seriously, the way this country works, little buggers are going to be running things soon.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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