IOWA COMPUTERS STOLEN AT GRINNELL COLLEGE
December 17, 2004 Friday

841 words


Wallets, other items waltz away at Grinnell College

By Brooke Lansdale, The Scarlet & Black; SOURCE: Grinnell College

GRINNELL, Iowa


As Grinnell College students unsuspectingly waltzed the night away at Harris on Saturday, their wallets, cash, P-Cards, and cameras were being stolen from the coatroom. "At Harris Center over the weekend we had nine incidents," said Steve Briscoe, director of Security. "One may have been from a previous weekend at the Harris Center, theft of a camera."

Students at Harris are not the only victims of recent campus theft. Computers, an iPod and money have also been stolen in the past month.

Molly Miller '06 was one of the students who had items stolen at Harris. "My wallet was taken, and then found again by Security," Miller said. Miller had to get a new post office box and have the lock on her dorm room changed: "They took my keys from my wallet and my cash, but they left everything else."

Waltz was not the first time this type of crime has occurred at Harris. At Fetish on Nov. 2, Pavitra Kannan '07 had her digital camera stolen. The camera was in the coatroom "in my purse, on a hanger, covered by my coat, [so that] you couldn't see my purse," said Kannan, who reported the theft to Security that night.

The thefts at Harris have led some students to question Security. "Hopefully, they'll start doing something different to prevent this from happening and it won't be an issue," Miller said.

Suyog Shrestha '06, one of the security chiefs at Waltz, said security was trying to watch the coatroom during the event: "I had that in mind because I had also worked a couple of weeks back when we had a couple of thefts. I was keeping an eye on the coatroom, but because I have to keep running around, I can't always be there."

Shrestha warned members of security standing near the stage to watch the coatroom although he said these students' primary job was to watch over the stage. He also pointed out the difficulty of distinguishing if someone is stealing: "It's hard to tell if someone is rummaging through someone else's pockets or trying to find their coat."

Some students have suggested leaving the lights on in the coatroom to prevent theft. As Shrestha pointed out, though, this was not a deterrent at Waltz: "From what I remember now, the lights were on almost all of the time in the coatroom."

Saurabh Saraf '05, co-security coordinator, said security does not normally leave the lights on in the coatroom because "we use ultraviolet lights for our stamps and we can't see whether someone's got a stamp or not if the light is on."

After reports of the first theft, Shrestha said that security changed procedure: "Every time someone went in there and spent more than a minute, let's say, we would turn the light on."

In his post-waltz security report, Shrestha suggested a coat check system or assigning someone to watch over the coats. "We would need an entirely different position," Saraf said. "Basically, we would need someone to stand at the coat check. That alone wouldn't be enough, either. We'd need some sort of token system so people could check in their valuables. That would probably complicate things a little too much."

Despite disagreement on how the problem will be solved, members of campus security who spoke with the S&B all said there would be discussion in the department about potential changes.

Perhaps the best solution is for students not to bring their valuables to Harris. Saraf said, "Maybe the problem is just people bringing valuables. If you've got a coatroom that is not being guarded in any way, it doesn't make sense to bring something very expensive."

After having her camera stolen, Kannan has changed her behavior: "I don't leave anything valuable in the coatroom anymore. I leave it at home or carry it on me."

Miller seconded Kannan: "If I were to go this weekend, I would definitely pretty much only bring my P-card and keep it on my person."

One of the most visible victims of recent campus theft is Miriam Stanton '05. Stanton put signs up around campus after having her Mac PowerBook taken while studying in an art history seminar room in Bucksbaum on Monday night. "I hadn't heard anybody around for hours," she said. "I turned off the light and closed the door, went to the Forum for a cup of coffee. I was gone 20 minutes, maybe 30 at the most, and I came back and my computer was gone."

While Stanton had received the e-mail about the waltz thefts, she said, "I never knew that a laptop had ever been stolen on this campus." In speaking with Briscoe, Stanton discovered she was not the first victim of this type of theft: "Had I been notified that these things had happened previously I would have taken my laptop with me," she said.

Briscoe said that items stolen earlier this month include an iPod from a dorm room in East Hall, a jacket from the Forum, and a computer, money, a lab book and an iPod from a dorm room in Cowles.

Briscoe was not sure whether there has been more theft on campus this year than in previous years. "Every year, about the end of the semester, the theft rate goes up," he said. "It's Christmas time. People are looking for money."