Early morning on Friday, a home invasion and theft happened at a campus-owned house at 100 Park St. apartment 108 The thief stole two laptops, an American flag, a Parks and Recreation poster, and a blanket, all together valued at more than $1,000.
Police have now apprehended a suspect, but have yet to release a report about the event. The investigating officer was unavailable for comment. The laptops were recovered on Saturday.
“When I was called by my workers, I said ‘make sure you call someone at the police,’ because we’re not able to handle crimes like that,” Director of Campus Security William Whorley said.
Whorley said, with larger crimes like this, this is the normal protocol.
Sophomores Joseph Newcomb and housemate Pietro Moran walked out to their common area, to find several things missing.
“Basically, my roommates woke me up because they thought I had done something,” sophomore Luke Daigneault said. “I walked outside and a very strange array of things had been stolen. Among the things missing were my laptop and my roommate’s laptop. Everything else that was stolen was mine. My American flag, my Parks and Rec poster, and my Ohio State blanket. Our first suspicion was that it was a prank.”
The housemates then sent a message to the cross-country team, of which they are all members, to make sure it wasn’t a prank.
“I had a paper due that day, and it wasn’t where it was, so I thought, ‘Oh no, someone’s messing with me, they need to give it to me now,’” Newcomb said. “We didn’t think it was a theft until we went to everyone on the team, and they all said it wasn’t them.”
They then called campus security, who quickly called the city police.
“Anytime there’s a crime that has been committed, or we need to involved the police over and above what we handle, we consult and work with them quite often,” Whorley said. “We have a good standing relationship with them.”
Daigneault said the residents did not have much hope of getting any of their things back. The only thing left at the scene of the crime was a pair of safety glasses.
“I received a call from the investigating officer on Saturday that they had apprehended a suspect,” Daigneault said. “I pressed her for more information. She said it was not a student.”
The group went to the police station Monday morning to retrieve the laptops, which police held during the weekend for evidence purposes.
“I got an extension on the paper,” Newcomb said. “And I didn’t have to rewrite it because we got the laptops back, which was nice.”
