Over the weekend of Jan. 26-27, Monmouth College was the victim of a set of robberies, as two valuable projectors were stolen out of  the Haldeman-Thiessen Science Center (HT). Monmouth College was hit again on Jan. 30, when another projector was stolen out of Wallace Hall at some time during the night.

“Over the course of four days, three projectors were stolen,” audio-visual/information systems technician Chris Buban said. “It’s my prediction it [the theft] was an outside job and not students. The perpetrators were crude in the manner they stole, as they used no finesse and big tools.”

The first two projectors in HT were stolen out of a secure lock-box that the bandit broke into with a crowbar, according to Buban. One was stolen out of the lecture hall (HT 109), while the other was taken from a roller cart on the third floor of the building.

That same night, two other attempts were made to steal projectors, including from rooms 423 and 206 in HT. The perpetrator tried to remove the projectors by unscrewing them out of the ceiling, but failed to complete the task, Buban said.

The perpetrators came back to Monmouth College during the night of Jan. 30, and this time they targeted Wallace Hall, stealing one older projector out of the basement Trotter Lab; the thieves cut the cables of the projector.

Buban filed a police report on Monday, Jan. 28, and then again on Wednesday, Jan. 30, but an investigation by the police has been unable to determine the identity of the criminals so far.

One possible lead is related to nearby Knox College, which suffered a similar robbery approximately three weeks ago. Electronics were also stolen out of Knox’s science center, and the perpetrators were likely the same for the Knox and Monmouth incidents, according to Buban.

Buban said the approximate value of the three projectors stolen from Monmouth is $4,500, as each projector costs around $1,500 to replace.

Three projectors have been ordered to replace the three that were stolen, but they will not be delivered and installed for a few more weeks, according to Buban. In the mean time, some classes are forced to use other devices in the place of the projectors, as there are not enough projectors for each class that currently needs them.

Buban also ordered security devices for each projector; so an alarm will be triggered if somebody attempts to steal projectors in the future.

Authorities are uncertain as to whether the perpetrators broke into the buildings, or if the doors were left unlocked.

“At this point, we have no way of knowing, it can be either one,” associate director of residence life Kathy Wagoner stated. “We try to allow student access to our buildings, and that’s something we don’t want to change.”

Monmouth College has implemented some new policies as a result of this situation.

“Security has been instructed to ask for student I.D.s to anybody seen around campus buildings during the night time,” Wagoner commented. “Security has also been asked to lock a few more places on campus; so, we’re hoping this will deter theft.”

Wagoner also said that all academic departments have been asked to be more diligent in locking rooms and buildings that students don’t need access to.

Wagoner advised Monmouth College students to help out the security by reporting any peculiar looking person wandering the campus and loitering around buildings.

“If students see strangers on campus or in academic buildings students can help by reporting anything that looks strange to security,” Wagoner stated.

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