By Liz Ciocher
News Editor
The Signal and Campus Police work together on a weekly basis to inform the campus community about crime on and around campus. All records given to The Signal are public records and do not contain personal information. Some information provided may be triggering for some students.
The Signal was provided with seven different incidents for the final Cop Shop release of the semester. Each incident ranges from petty theft to incidents of harassment.
March 22: Panera bread wallet theft
A student was eating lunch at Panera Bread at approximately 2:50 p.m., but on her way back to her residence, she received a phone call from her brother about an unusual charge to their shared credit card. After this phone call, the student realized her wallet was missing from her jacket pocket.
In an attempt to retrace her steps, the student returned to Panera and asked to see the security footage from earlier her visit. She recalled putting her jacket on the back of her chair, and an unidentified man sat closely behind her. The security footage did not capture the student or the suspected man, but Campus Police suspects he took the wallet from her jacket while it was hanging on the student’s chair while she was still sitting in it.
There was a $2,000 Lululemon credit card charge, along with a charge for $1,704.93 on a debit card at Apple. The student was able to cancel the charges, but her wallet was not returned. Along with the credit and debit card, the wallet contained her driver’s license, 1-2 health insurance cards, her College ID card and $40 in mixed bills.
April 17: Professor reports stolen key
At approximately 10 a.m., Campus Police responded to a music department professor who reported damages to a classroom piano. The professor did not have any idea who caused the damage, but did tell the responding officers that a key for the classroom was stolen two weeks before the incident. Campus Police provided the professor with a case number for the damages.
April 17: ABE fire alarm
Campus Police arrived at Allen Hall after being notified of a silenced fire alarm in one of the resident’s rooms. The officers went into the student’s room, who explained that her hair products caused the alarm to activate. She opened her windows and turned on a fan to ventilate the space. The Ewing fire department arrived on the scene and noticed a slight haze in the air, but no signs of fire. The fire department reset the system back to normal.
April 19: A second ABE fire alarm
A smoke detector in a room in Brewster Hall prompted Campus Police to arrive at the residence hall at approximately 10:10 p.m. The residents of the room were still there upon the officer’s arrival, and told the officers a blow dry hairbrush appeared to be the cause of smoke. Prospect Heights Fire Department arrived at the scene and confirmed there was no threat or fire damage on the property. The alarm was reset.
April 20: Sodexo employee catches fire
During a barbeque event on Alumni Weekend at the Green Hall lawn, some patrolling officers observed a Sodexo employee drop to the ground and remove his pants from his body. Once they approached the employee, they realized he was putting out a small fire that caught on his pant leg. The employee was moving a sterno he did not realize was still lit, dropped it and spilled some of the fuel on his leg.
The employee put out the fire on his pants when he dropped to the ground and did not sustain any injuries. The area of the ground was grass, which began smoking slightly and lit a small flame. One of the officers used a fire extinguisher that was found next to a grill to put out the fire. There were no injuries or damages reported.
April 22: Wolfe disorderly conduct
At approximately 10:20 p.m., Campus Police arrived at Wolfe Hall to address a young male acting disorderly. One of the Wolfe residents reported that she saw the suspect taking nametags off of other resident’s doors. A second resident confronted the male, asking him to return the nametags, to which the male became aggressive.
He told the resident he would “knock him out” over the manner and began banging on the resident’s door when he returned to his room. He was calling his name and demanding he come out into the hallway to fight. The resident managed to take a photo of the male through his peephole and could see the male entering and leaving another resident’s room in the residence.
Campus Police approached the room and was able to identify the male from the peephole photo. The man identified himself as the boyfriend of another Wolfe resident, but he was not a resident or a student of the College.
Officers spoke with his girlfriend who admitted to having many problems with her boyfriend being loud and causing a disturbance in the past. The responding officers escorted the male to his vehicle in Lot 13 and instructed him to leave for the night. The male told the officers he was too angry to be in a stable mindset to drive, so they waited with him in the parking lot for him to gain his composure. They remained in the parking lot for 25 minutes before the male got in his vehicle to drive home.
April 24: Ex-girlfriend leaves dirt and glitter package at doorstep
Campus police spoke with a resident of Centennial Hall who was reporting an incident of harassment after he received a box filled with glitter, rotten food, dirt and rocks outside his door. The resident reported seeing his former girlfriend, who is also a student at the College, leave the box at his doorstep, along with a card with no writing but filled with glitter.
Campus Police offered to press criminal charges against the student’s former girlfriend or provide the resident with a restraining order against her, but he declined. He told the responding officers he just wanted to have documentation of the incident. A College-issued no-contact order was implicated for the two students.
