ELLEN KURT ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
There are no suspects in custody in the case of a stolen student identification card used to buy the entire stock of pop in two swipe card machines Oct. 11.
John Myers, director of campus security and safety, said they have never had a case like this.
“Unless you have to hand the ID card to somebody and they look at it and see the face, you are not totally safe,” Myers said. “But if you go to a machine, the machine doesn’t see your face. It makes students more vulnerable if they have money on their account.”
The student whose ID was stolen had lent the ID to his or her parents and brother during Family Weekend, because he or she needed to go off campus, and they needed to put something in their student’s room. The student had made arrangements for his or her brother to take the keys and card and put it in the student’s campus mail box.
“We don’t know for sure if apparently he did not close the box, or we have one witness that said part of the lanyard was sticking out,” Myers said.
“There was no damage to the door so we’re guessing the door was never actually closed and locked.”
The card was used to buy 103 cans of pop. Only two other people used the same machine in the CTC, but the times were not close enough for these two people to identify the suspect.
“CTC is really quiet on Sunday, so [the suspect] would have had 20-30 minutes to fill a backpack. Twenty cans could fit in a backpack easily. You could go out to your car or somewhere and empty them, then come back,” Myers said.
Myers said he thinks only one or two people were involved.
The card’s owner told Dining Services the next day that he or she couldn’t find his or her card.
Dining Services checked the account and noticed lots of pop had been purchased on the card on October 11 from 2:13 p.m. to 10:19 p.m. This was, then, reported to security.
“Dining Services came and told me a student bought a hundred and three cans of pop. I said, ‘OK, if [he or she] has the money for it.’ Margaret told me, No, that’s not the case,” Myers said.
The student was a residential assistant so the lock had to be changed to the RA office as well as [his or her room], Myers said.
“Our feeling was if somebody would take somebody’s card and spend $157 of that money, if they had an RA key and had access to everyone’s room in [the building], what else would they do? So we had to change that key too,” Myers said.
The owner of the card has not reported anyone trying to get into his or her room. The lock was changed about an hour after Myers found out.
Although the owner of the card lost quite a bit of his or her points, he or she will not be reimbursed for those points, Myers said.
Once the suspect is found, he or she will be taken to the Student Conduct Board and will have to pay for restitution, repair of locks and keys and replacement of the ID.
Myers warns students to make sure campus mailboxes are locked and to watch where they set their ID card.
“Just don’t lay it down, don’t walk away and leave it. Think of it as a credit card. Students don’t lose their credit cards. I get maybe two credit cards a year turned in here. I get maybe three or four drivers licenses, but I get ID cards daily,” Myers said.
If anybody has any information, they can give it to security anonymously, by phone message or on MySafeCampus.com.