Do you know what the value of a full-ride scholarship is? The value is well into the six figures, that’s for sure. Why would anyone getting that kind of benefit risk it for shoplifting? Four college athletes will be regret their stupid decision.

Four Hofstra University basketball players took advantage of their campus prestige to gain access to dorm rooms and steal more than $10,000 in high-end electronics. I guess a $200,000 free education, with room and board wasn’t enough. As reported in www.newsday.com.

The four players/thieves -- Shaquille Stokes, 20, Kentrell Washington, 18, Jimmy Hall Jr., 18, and Dallas Anglin, 18, were involved in the string of thefts, stealing cash, a laptop, headphones, three MacBook Pros, an Apple iPod, two Apple iPads and an Apple iPod Touch.

The hoops stars sold the stolen goods to pawnshops, fellow students and through Craigslist, then used the proceeds to buy clothing, off-campus meals and generally lead a lavish lifestyle. Do you think this was a good idea?

Ultimately a victimized student helped bring down their theft ring, police said.

The crime ring began to crumble when a female Hofstra student whose iPad was stolen earlier this month logged into the gadget's internal locator program and found it registered to a new owner: Shaquille Stokes. She reported her discovery to police, who used the players' dormitory key card records and campus sign-in sheets to retrace their crime spree and link them to the thefts.

Now all four are suspended from the team, and they can probably say goodbye to a future basketball career. Perhaps Hofstra should have mandated all athletes on scholarship take a New York theft class.