Over $500 worth of musical equipment was stolen from Psi Upsilon fraternity in the late morning or early afternoon hours Saturday following a performance by the campus-based Z-Force Action Band at Psi U's party on Friday night.
Jacob Wegmann '97, a member of Z-Force, said the band finished playing at 3 a.m. and left their equipment at Psi U overnight.
When they returned to the fraternity on Saturday afternoon at about 3:30 p.m. to pick up their equipment, the band members discovered six microphones, rented from Hanover Strings, could not be found anywhere on the premises.
Z-Force member Jonah Blumstein '98 contacted the police, and Hanover Police Sergeant Lawrence Ranslow, who responded to the call, said there were no signs of a break-in.
Ranslow said it is "typical" of thefts from fraternities in that the perpetrator was probably "someone just passing through."
Psi U President Adrian Durbin '98 said the fraternity normally does not lock its doors during the day and there are people going in and out all day, but "there could have been stretches of time where the microphones were unattended ... It would have taken only a couple of minutes to get them."
Although the police are following a few leads, Ranslow said they know little at this point.
Wegmann said he believes the equipment was stolen between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and Durbin said the theft probably occurred later on Saturday afternoon.
Durbin said some members of Psi U saw "two suspicious men" looking at the band equipment at about 4 a.m. Saturday morning and asked them to leave the house, which they did, but added that the microphones were still at Psi U as late as "early Saturday afternoon."
"No one from our house saw any suspicious people" on Saturday afternoon, Durbin said.
Wegmann said the group usually leaves their equipment at a fraternity after shows and they have "never had any problems before."
The members of the band will have to pay for the equipment themselves if it is not recovered.
