Written by Jeremy Watson
The latest incident of dorm theft came to a satisfying conclusion two weeks ago as the property stolen was recovered in less than 24 hours.
Senior history major Will Baker, a Resident Assistant in Cone Hall, was working on his laptop at the front desk in Cone March 16, the Sunday after Spring Break, when a resident asked him to unlock his room after he accidentally left his keys inside. Baker said that when he returned, his laptop was gone, even though he had only been gone for a minute or two upstairs.
“[The resident] was on the third floor, and his door was really close to the stairwell, so it’s not like I was going down the hall or anything,” Baker said. “I had folded [my laptop] up and set it aside, so it wasn’t blatantly obvious, but I hadn’t locked it up, which is always the thought that you have in the back of you mind: ‘Maybe I should lock this up.’ But usually we’re not going to be gone long enough for it to really matter too much.”
Baker said that while he immediately reported the theft to Public Safety and Cone’s Resident Life Coordinator, Linda Cox, he had little hope of recovering his computer. His suitemates, however, were more hopeful. When Baker asked to borrow one of their computers to change his passwords to Web sites to try to prevent identity theft, David Farrow, a senior computer science and biochemistry major who works for DormNet, forwarded his computer’s information to DormNet.
According to Assistant Dean of Students Zach Neal, DormNet has the ability to track computers over the Harding network.
“Our DormNet can say ‘it’s to this room, and to this jack, and you will find these numbers underneath them,'” Neal said. “It’s helpful, because in situations like that it really is hard to find out what is going on.”
After the computer was located, Public Safety officers, Neal and Associate Dean of Students Stuart Varner searched the dorm room indicated and found the computer. Craig Russell, the Director of Public Safety, said the handbook gives Harding Public Safety and administration permission to search any student’s dorm room or property they bring on campus.
“The students, by signing their contract with the university agreeing to abide by the student handbook, have given the university permission to search rooms when necessary,” Russell said. “Our department and the Office of Student Life is very cognizant of students’ privacy, and we take their privacy very seriously, and we do not flippantly search rooms unless we believe we’ve got a very good reason to do so. When we do [search a room], we almost always do so in cooperation with the deans.”
Baker said he was very happily surprised to walk up to the dorm after a phone call from Public Safety to find his computer there as well.
“The next day I get a call about 2:30 from security, and I thought it was just that they were following up on it, that, you know, they wanted to get the serial numbers for my computer,” Baker said. “Well, as I walked up to the dorm, there’s the dorm manager, at least two deans and the head of security along with probably three or four other officers, and what should Dean Neal have in his hands but my laptop.”
Baker said he is happiest about retrieving all the files and documents he had stored on his computer, including all the photos taken this year of his club, Delta Chi Delta, of which he is the historian.
“All of my grad school application information, my work [was on the computer],” Baker said. “I’m going to be going into history in grad school with the ultimate goal of getting a doctorate, and it’s fairly important that I keep papers for examples, for ideas, for other papers or possibly even books eventually, to help develop and examine my own writing style, stuff like that.”
Although both Neal and Russell said they could not give specific information on the case, both Baker and the perpetrator’s suitemate said the student who took Baker’s computer has moved out of his dorm, probably after being suspended or expelled.
“There were lots of visits from the deans, but that doesn’t really tell much,” the perpetrator’s suitemate said. “He didn’t really want to talk about much of anything, and then he just moved out, and they locked up his room and everything. I don’t think he checked out because they had to change the locks because he didn’t return the key.”
Russell said that while stolen items are often not recovered, recording the serial numbers of electronic equipment and other costly items and talking with the police greatly increases the chances of recovery.
“We encourage people, if they’re the victim of a crime, to talk to the police and then it’s up to the individual themselves as to whether they believe that it is appropriate to press charges; that’s their choice,” Russell said.
“The reason we point people to the police is that most often, that’s how they’re most likely to be able to recover the items. They report it to the police, and the police will check the local pawn shops and give them a serial number for whatever was stolen and if it’s recovered some other way, it’s much more likely to get back to the rightful owner.”
Russell also said one way to prevent theft is to simply not leave items sitting out.
“Fortunately, we don’t have a lot of the higher-dollar items like laptops stolen,” he said. “But this is kind of a good example of why you don’t need to leave things — whether it’s a backpack, a laptop or even your laundry — you don’t need to leave it without being around and without being there with it, because any time you leave an item unattended, you’re much more likely to be a victim of theft than if you’re watching it closely.”
While theft has been a recurring problem this year, this instance, at least, ended well.
“We were real pleased in this particular case that we were actually able to recover the property and get it back to its rightful owner quickly,” Russell said. “And any time you can do that … that’s the kind of outcome that we want.”
