Student thieves sit in Wertz' hot seat
Defining the blurred lines between borrowing and stealing campus valuables
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: News
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For a college where students routinely leave laptops, cell phones, purses and backpacks lying in public places, it's hard to determine whether such instances bespeak natural student life or a nascent trend toward thievery.
"I've not really seen much malicious theft, but more of a lack of manners - what students might call 'borrowing,' " said Dean of Men Aaron Petersen.
Peterson distinguished "malicious" theft as stealing without intending to return an item, and said Hillsdale College sees few such cases.
Students who filched tables and chairs from the old snack bar and stashed them in an off-campus house more than a month ago, for instance, said they merely wanted to re-create the snack bar's former camaraderie and atmosphere. Since smoking and claiming tables for long periods is now prohibited in the old space, it has become largely deserted. The students plan to return the furniture by the end of the year, a senior who was involved told The Collegian.
It's the same with a giant throne-like chair which formerly graced the Grewcock Student Union gaming area. It now nestles in a senior's West Street bedroom.
Director of Security Mike Wertz said he's not particularly agitated about these missing items, since he knows where they are and has a good idea of which students took them.
"[The students] have already said through the grapevine that they would bring them back," Wertz said. "I'd be happy to shot whiskey with them if that's what it takes."
Not every missing item on campus leaves such a clear trail. A floor trophy - the "hall's balls" - from Simpson Hall's third floor north disappeared a few weeks ago, leaving no trace.
"[They] just disappeared one day," said senior Sean Crawford, a floor resident. "No one on the hall has them. The cleaning ladies may have taken them, but we still consider that stealing."
The "hall's balls" rotated between floor residents, hanging from the ceiling above the door of the man who won the last hall fight. Crawford described them as looking like ten small maraca heads hanging from a stick, painted in black with a special design on each. He said floor residents are stymied about their trophy's location.
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