Professor reports theft in Bancroft
Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 4:07PM By Anna Douglas
No leads on pill theft in Bancroft
One professor reported theft of prescription drugs from his office to Campus Police last week. The pills are estimated to be worth $50, police said.
The theft occurred in Bancroft sometime between March 6 — the day the fire in Owens was reported — and March 22, according to a Winthrop Police report.
The actual day or time of the theft is unknown to the professor because Bancroft faculty were unable to access their offices because of the fire recovery and clean up effort. For privacy reasons, the professor requested not to be identified.
Officer Jim Troyan met with the professor at his office in Bancroft on March 24. Troyan said the case is closed because there is no way to know who might have been in the building during the time classes there were canceled and faculty were displaced. Investigations officer Sgt. Sandra Richardson could choose to open up the case later if leads in the theft come up, Troyan said.
Troyan said closing the case was done for “housekeeping” purposes.
Considering all the activity on campus during the recovery response to the Owens fire, Troyan said the lack of additional reports of crime is good.
“After all the confusion, property is safe and put back in its regular place,” he said. Walter Hardin, associate vice president for facilities management, said he had not heard of the incident in Bancroft.
Authorized contractors and Winthrop personnel were in the building during the time period “performing necessary tasks to get it back on line,” Hardin said.
“It is incredibly frustrating to think anyone from on or off campus would abuse such a situation for nefarious reasons,” he said.
Between 2006 and 2008, 247 thefts were reported on campus, according to crime statistics on Campus Police’s Web site. Data from 2009 was not available online.
