Doormat thieves caught
The students that stole doormats from University Housing have been caught and turned over to the student judicial board.
On Dec. 6, between 10 and 12, doormats were stolen from various buildings at The Village at West Campus according to police reports and University Housing. However, according to University Housing, not all of them were actually stolen.“The Housing staff took up a few of them because some residents were using them to prop doors open which just wasn’t safe,” said Sgt. Michael Baker, the lead detective on the case. “The others were actually stolen by various residents before they left before the break.”
Property crimes are the number one problem on campus according to Sgt. Baker.
“Luckily this wasn’t a felonious item that was stolen and didn’t cost more than $500,” Baker said.
According to University Housing, they do their best to keep things like this from continuing to happen. The value of each individual doormat was $150.00.
“Any kind of theft or vandalism to our buildings is taken seriously,” said Cindy McClanahan, interim associate director of student development and marketing coordinator for University Housing.
Student employees do what they can to help the staff keep everything in order.
“As a community assistant we can only do so much,” said senior rhetoric major Meredith Nelson, a community advisor in Adams Hall. “When on duty we go on rounds through our halls at 6, 8, 10 and 12 p.m. If anything is damaged or missing, we report it, but other than that we can’t stay up all night in order to prevent everything.”
Public Safety has a routine as well to help prevent petty crimes including theft.
“We try to do foot patrols as much as we can, but our presence is the biggest deterrent from things like this continuing to happen,” Baker said. “Really the presence of anyone is a large deterrent. No one wants to steal something while someone else is watching.”
University Housing feels most students are not causing any harm.
“Ninety-nine percent of students are doing what they are supposed to do,” McClanahan said. “They report things when they happen and that really helps.”
Some students don’t think the theft was a large concern.
“I don’t think that stealing rugs is a major offense, and it shouldn’t be treated as one,” said freshman early childhood education major Samantha Profit. “However since the rugs are the property of the school, the people responsible for taking them should either return the rugs or be financially responsible for replacing them.”
Other students agree about the severity of theft but still think more should be done.
“I think that the school should make it known that stealing any sort of property is not only illegal but shows a lack of respect to the college,” said senior rhetoric major, Kaytie Bird. “If any students are caught with them then I think any punishment would be seen as over the top. Therefore, the students should just be made to give back the mats and write a letter of apology to the school. However, if the incident was to happen again then a stricter course of action could take place.”
Posted by 
