A theft in New Hampshire residence hall and an unusual exhibitionist incident near the River Cluster marked the beginning of this week.
Safety and Security Investigator Lauren Cummings said the television and VCR in the New Hamp lounge were stolen between 2:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Monday.
He said the thief used "brute force" rather than tools to remove the equipment from their security mounts.
"They literally ripped them from their security mounts," Cummings said.
Parts of the television set that were bolted to the security mount were broken off, and the thief "literally destroyed" the metal plate that holds the VCR to its security mount, Cummings said.
Although he would not speculate as to whether a student had stolen the equipment, Cummings said he thinks "the equipment probably hasn't gone off campus."
Cummings said thefts of College televisions and VCRs do not happen very often, but they occur "enough so that we're concerned about it."
Topliff/New Hamp Area Coordinator James Gallo '99 will hold a discussion tonight at 8 p.m. in the New Hamp lounge to address the thefts that have occurred in the buildings.
Gallo wrote in a BlitzMail message to all cluster residents that items have been stolen from students' rooms in the cluster as well.
Thefts from student rooms have not been reported to Safety and Security, Cummings said. He added that Safety and Security can respond to trends in thefts if students report them.
"We wish that when a theft occurred, a student would come forward immediately in all cases," he said.
Cummings said he would be a "strong proponent" of having locks placed on the front doors of residence halls, but he thinks students should have a strong influence on the proceedings.
In a separate incident at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, a half-naked male hiding in bushes near the River Cluster encouraged a female passer-by to approach him.
Cummings said the man, who only had clothing on his upper body, asked the student to come to him and look at something.
The student thought she recognized the man's voice, so she looked in his direction and entered the Thayer School of Engineering when she saw him, Cummings said.
He said the man's shirt may have been a sweatshirt, and the student thought from his voice that he was in his twenties or thirties.
Safety and Security and the Hanover Police are both investigating the incident.
Because the student waited about an hour before she reported the incident to Safety and Security, Cummings said it will be difficult to find a suspect.
"There really is no other investigative tool available to us at the moment, other than to try to get somebody else who might have seen something to come forward," he said.
