some interesting news

But also good news, especially for my colleague.

Remember when we had break-ins in my building? And I wasn't coming up here on weekends because I was worried about running into the perp? And my colleague lost a lock-box with some cash and also some papers (including some letters that had great sentimental value to him)?

They caught the perp a while back. But one of the campus cops was extremely persistent. He said, "I bet the evidence of the stuff he stole is still SOMEWHERE."

A lock box was found in another building the perp was thought to have been in. Not my colleague's lock box, though. But anyway, the cop, in talking to the perp, showed him a photo and said, "We found the box you stole." (Heh. Straight out of Law and Order).

The perp, in classic dumb-perp fashion, said, "That's not the lock box I stole" (instead of, you know, "I didn't steal any lock box!")

Well, a chain of discussion later, the campus cop found out where the guy stashed the goods- in another disused office* we didn't know he had a key to. And there was my colleague's lock box! Oh, the money was gone and the box was basically destroyed (the guy beat it with a crowbar to open it), but the papers were still there and my colleague now has them back. (His assumption was that the perp threw them in a dumpster somewhere).

I also made the cop laugh because when he was showing us the office where the guy had stashed the stuff, I remarked, "Oh, it's his guest room!" (the perp was sleeping in another disused office here. And stealing food the secretary kept in the break room for her lunches....)







The bad news is we found out the guy had more keys than we thought, but those keys have apparently been recovered. As I said, my hidden house key was still secure but now I'm not so sure about keeping one, even hidden, in my office - maybe I give it to the secretary at church? But then again, church offices are often targets for break ins. I don't want to keep it in my car, because cars can be broken in to....

I dunno. It still feels creepy even though the guy sitting in jail is almost certainly the only one involved. (And the story has got out to the students; some of my students were asking me about it in lab yesterday and I told them, without giving too many details, the basic outline of what happened.)

We're still waiting on the CCTV cameras to be installed but it seems less urgent now. Then again, there have been a few "incidents" at the apartment complex only a couple hundred yards from us and I admit, I think I'd prefer having good lighting outside the building and maybe even a CCTV camera (with a large sign noting its presence - or even JUST a sign claiming there is video surveillance). We are kind of isolated up here and especially first thing these dark mornings I am a bit apprehensive coming in alone.

(*I don't think we can use all these empty offices as grounds for "We need to replace those two tenure lines we lost and never replaced" but I wish we could.)