Most Dartmouth students have woken up on a Saturday morning to a BlitzMail inbox full of messages reporting lost jackets and other valuables last seen the night before at Greek houses. Older students agree that this is not a new phenomenon. The effectiveness of the campus-wide blitzing and the experience of losing a jacket, however, varies from case to case.
Noah Hall '07, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, had his coat taken from a room he believed was locked in his own fraternity house. He waited a few weeks and eventually blitzed out to campus but got no leads, only a few responses from friends saying "good luck." Hall still does not know who took his jacket but suspects it was taken as part of a joke.
"It's likely a townie trying to cause mischief or someone from another frat trying to pull one over on us," he said. "I feel like if my jacket wasn't safe in a locked room at my own house, then it's probably random bad luck you can't do anything about," he said.
Hall felt that there was nothing he could do to prevent the situation and eventually bought a new coat.
Alexandra Gortchilova '09, like Palakurthy, had her coat taken from Chi Gamma Epsilon. Gortchilova had tied her coat to a railing, thinking it would be safe, but discovered that it was missing several hours later. In fear of hypothermia, Gortlichova took someone else's jacket that was still at the house. The next morning, she too sent a campus-wide e-mail about her missing jacket and the jacket that she had taken. She said she received several "hate mail" messages in return.
"In my [e-mail], I actually mention that I took someone else's jacket because everyone does it but nobody says it," she said. "I was just being honest about it."
She said that several days later, she received an e-mail saying that her jacket had been found in Novack Cafe and was able to reclaim it. She was also able to return the jacket she took via communication through a cell phone that had been left in the pocket.
Gortchilova said that she feels like when jackets are taken, it creates a domino-effect.
"I feel like there is one really drunk person who cannot find his jacket so from there, each person who doesn't find their jackets gets cold and takes one," she said.
None of the students interviewed said they believe Dartmouth students are thieves, but several said that the "eye-for-an-eye" mentality exists when a student discovers his or her jacket missing. Palakurthy, who was never able to find his coat, agreed.
"I believe it's not that people can't afford a jacket or want to sell it, it's just that people don't want to walk back in the cold," he said.
