A traumatic episode came to a close late last week for would-be mascot Keggy the Keg, when staffers of Jack-o-Lantern humor magazine recovered the missing costume.
The man behind the keg, Andrew Argeski '06, talked about Keggy's return.
"We traced the pictures sent from the Hotmail account to an IP address in Berry," Argeski said of the threatening message and photo sent from kegnapper@hotmail.com. Then the culprit, feeling mounting pressure from the rogue mascot's die-hard fans, emailed Argeski from a Dartmouth blitz account.
"They were panicking," he said. "They got nervous because the last article [in The Dartmouth] said the police were involved, and we knew a lot of people who said 'if we find out who did this, we're gonna kill 'em.'"
The email message came from a member of the class of 2006 who Argeski declined to name and announced Keggy's whereabouts in a campus dorm. His worried owners picked him up immediately.
The anonymous '06 and cohorts told the Keggy crew they found the mascot behind Sigma Nu Fraternity. Argeski did not care to speculate as to the veracity of this statement, which conflicts with Keggy co-creator Chris Plehal '04's statement that Keggy was last in Sigma Nu's library.
There was minimal tension between Keggy's captors and his owners when the unofficial mascot was picked up, the owners said.
"They were pretty sorry about what they'd done," said Argeski. "They really didn't want to do harm, they were just doing a prank. It just wasn't a good time."
Hanover Chief of Police Nick Giaccone, whose office had begun an investigation following a report from members of the Jacko staff, had little to say regarding the incident. When asked if he was concerned about Keggy's absence, or felt relieved that the mascot had been recovered, he just said "no."
Keggy's nose and mouth need to be replaced, and he will need a new paint job. The kidnappers did re-glue the eye they removed for the ransom picture.
As for the Jacko's plans next term for the joke mascot, who was created in response to the Student Assembly's failed mascot search, Argeski said "we have our own agenda."
