Stolen items returned
By Jeremy Herb
A combination of quick thinking and dumb luck helped the Athletic Department retrieve $750 of stolen pep band equipment last week.
Two middle school students admitted to Campus Safety last Thursday that they had taken the equipment from the Leavey Center. No charges were filed, and the students returned the equipment on Friday.
The only reason that the students were caught, however, was that sophomores Andrew Willingham and Taylor Thorn, the pep band's creators, happened to be in Leavey at the same time and noticed two kids dressed in black acting suspiciously.
"The way they moved, kind of scurrying along, I just had a feeling, it looked suspicious to me," Willingham said.
Willingham first noticed that some of the band's drum equipment was missing last Tuesday, but believed that someone could have been borrowing the items.
When more equipment went missing Wednesday, however, Willingham suspected foul play.
The two band directors contacted the Athletic Department, which owns the drum equipment. The band needed the equipment for the women's basketball game that Friday, so they compiled a list of stolen items.
On Thursday, Willingham and Thorn went to the athletic office in Leavey to give athletics the list of missing equipment, a routine visit that they could have done just as easily through e-mail, Willingham said.
After leaving the offices, Willingham said that two kids dressed in all-black clothes caught his eye.
Willingham and Thorn watched the suspicious students head straight towards the Leavey elevator, taking it to the same floor as the band equipment room.
The band members followed them to the band room door, where they confronted the young students. Willingham said that the kids claimed to be meeting a cousin in front of the room.
Ignoring the kids' claims, Willingham and Thorn quickly called athletics and Campus Safety to their aid. After Campus Safety talked with the students, they confessed to stealing the equipment.
The next day, they returned the missing equipment to the Athletic Department, which did not press charges.
Contact Jeremy Herb at (408) 554-4546 or at jmherb@scu.edu.