Students nabbed for theft
By John Byrne
During the all-campus blackout early Wednesday morning, several students decided
it would be amusing to abscond with an ad-hoc stop sign set up by Oberlin Police.
With designs on the sign for a room accessory, several inebriated students toted the 50-pound safety
fixture back to their rooms.
Unfortunately for these would-be thieves, the sign was dragged through the snow and left a distinct
trail. Hot on their tails, police followed the tracks to Tank Hall.
If a persons drunk and walking home and they see a stop sign can be moved, with their
thought processes not working well, it seems a funny thing to do, and you get a cool accessory
for you room, one student involved with the theft said. But obviously its not.
Police did room-to-room searches until the sign was recovered. Several students in Tank said they
were considering filing a formal complaint against Security questioning the legality of the late-night
intrusion.
According to reports, police also discovered several students smoking marijuana. They then threatened
to take the students to the station unless they disclosed who had purloined the sign.
They found a group of three boys smoking a bong in the hallway, and they were threatening
to take the boys into the police station, and they coerced them into saying this girl had something
to do with it, the rueful student remarked.
The sign-snatching student expressed indignation at the way the matter was handled.
They started yelling at me, asking me Wheres the sign? Wheres the sign?
Wheres the sign? she said. I at first denied I knew anything about it.
I was terrified.
I didnt even know what my rights were, she added. The only answer I received
was something to the effect of, You dont know your rights? You didnt go to school?
Oberlin Police Chief Michael Moorman and Captain Miller were not available for comment Thursday.
Other students, who had no knowledge of the theft until officers began hammering on their doors,
were similarly upset.
About three-thirty in the morning I heard a couple of loud bangs on my door, and Oberlin
police officers entered the room and shined flashlights on us and basically asked us if we knew
anything about the stop signs, sophomore Erin Brazell said. We were really, really
scared last night.
The 2 a.m. theft drew the wrath of several officers. According to students, officers said they
were in hot pursuit of the thief. The involved student, however, contends otherwise.
If they were in hot pursuit of the sign, a three year old child could have crawled faster,
she said. They showed up 30 to 45 minutes after we arrived back at Tank.
The search comes on the heels of two incidents over Winter Term in which students claim Security
conducted spurious searches.
In one, maintenance crews discovered that a student had been growing marijuana when changing a
sprinkler head, then searched the entire hall.
In another, Security entered several students rooms in pursuit of illicit alcohol after asserting
that an massive unauthorized hall party had transpired. House Loose Ends Coordinator Monica Lee
stated that Security claimed the doors were propped. However, at least two of the students whose
rooms were searched were away for Winter Term.
If you were away for Winter Term, it means your door was locked, Lee said. They
were all locked. They were checked by our residence director.
Security is also threatening Tank with disciplinary action for excessive alcohol consumption.
They said that Safety and Security was going to file a formal complain against Tank Hall
because we had too many empty beer bottles, Lee said. She claimed that an officer said, There
are too many empty beer bottles around, so you must be doing too much partying.
Lee declared she was going to meet Captain Miller today to discuss the stop sign fracas.
Traffic safety sign theft is somewhat of a tradition among angst-ridden young adults. But it can
have grave and deadly consequences.
In 1996, three Florida teenagers were sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing 19 stop signs
in Tampa, after three teenagers were killed by a 8-ton truck that careened through an intersection
and struck their car. While their case was later overturned because of trial errors, the worst
case scenario remains.
Police said the matter was still under investigation. A formal report has not been issued.
Chief of Security Bob Jones declined to comment about the specifics of the event, saying only,
Were still gathering information on it.
Lee and Brazell are scheduled to meet with ResLife today to discuss courses of action and will
seek legal counsel on whether a formal complaint is warranted.
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