Students busted in thefts

Two arrests in June brought more than $7,000 in stolen property back to Georgia College & State University.

GC&SU student Steve Michael Martin and his roommate, Nathan Ather Hammel, were arrested by GC&SU Public Safety and charged with burglary.

According to Assistant District Attorney Brent Cochran, Martin appeared
in Baldwin County Court on August 27. He pled guilty to four counts of burglary, earning five years of probation and approximately $1,500 in fines and restitution to the university system.

Hammel will be making his first court appearance in October. He has been accused of one count of burglary and one count of theft by taking.

“The date that broke the case was June 23,” said GC&SU Public Safety Detective Robert Butler. “[Hammel] allegedly went into room 309 in Atkinson Hall at 5:46 a.m. and removed items from the room.”

Upon entering the computer lab in Atkinson Hall that morning, Caroline Collier, instructor and director of the Multimedia Laboratory, immediately noticed that a computer was missing.

“I came in that morning and noticed that one of the flat panel monitors was missing,” said Collier. “My first reaction was, ‘who borrowed my flat screen monitor?’”

Collier immediately logged online to search for e-mails pertaining to the computer. When nothing was found, Public Safety was contacted and security videos located in Atkinson Hall were examined.

Public safety found exactly what they were looking for.

“You could see him as plain as day,” said the Director for Campus Computer Support Services, Chad McDonald.

“We saw the subject enter the computer lab and then leave with the items in question,” said Butler.

“At first I thought he was a construction worker because of the way he was dressed. I questioned people with OIIT and one person said the subject looked like someone he had seen at Buffington’s,” said Butler.

Public Safety used a still photograph from the security tape to question Buffington employees. The subject was identified as an employee of The Brick, a neighboring restaurant.

Management at The Brick then identified the subject in the video as Hammel. They provided Butler with an address in order to locate the suspect.

“Hammel answered the door and appeared to be wearing the same clothing as the subject in the still photo,” said Butler.

Butler said authorities received consent to search the property and, upon gaining entry, suspected stolen items were visible immediately. Butler said he questioned Hammel about the items and Hammel was taken into custody and arrested.

“I asked Hammel if he wanted me to tell his roommate that I was taking him into custody,” said Butler. “He said that he did, and at that time I made contact with [his roommate, Steve Michael] Martin, who was in his room.”

Butler said he recognized certain items in Martin’s room that matched descriptions of additional missing property. Butler questioned Martin about the equipment, and then placed him under arrest; the charge at that time was possession of stolen property.

Both subjects were first time offenders when arrested, Butler said.

According to the arrest report, between April and June, Martin allegedly stole technological equipment from Atkinson Hall, Arts and Sciences, Kilpatrick Hall, Chappell Hall, Herty, the Maxwell Student Union and Peabody Auditorium.

According to McDonald, the university was able to reclaim approximately three-fourths of the equipment undamaged.

McDonald claimed that the incidents of theft were a result of carelessness on campus.

“The biggest thing is to keep your room locked,” said McDonald. “Don’t leave anything of value accessible. Crime is where motive meets opportunity. When there is no opportunity, there is no crime,” said McDonald.

McDonald also added the university is working toward making campus security more proactive than reactive. He said approximately 200 security cameras will be installed outdoors around campus. Chief Information Officer Jim Wolfgang has asked that faculty and staff make sure doors are locked to promote safety.

Court authorities said Martin and Hammel served only one night in jail after their bonds were posted, June 24.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 24 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry