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By Nancy Stohs
The good guy at UNL has tricks up his sleeve, too.
So one concludes after a check into security
measures taken against theft by University Police, the
Union, housing office, and the bookstores.
Before you plot your next major rip-off, you
might want to think twice and read on.
UNL dormitories
Every night student security guards are on duty,
one to a residence hall, from 10:30 to 6:30.
Trained by Campus Security, they patrol
basements and check students coming into the
building for identification. After 1 p.m. they patrol
the floors.
Any student entering a residence hall after 1 p.m.
has to sign in himself and his guest. Persons caught
Greek house thefts
low, says Anderson
Two years ago, $100 in clothing was stolen from
the Pi Beta Phi sorority house at UNL. They were
brought there by a member, who was a campus
representative from a Lincoln clothing store.
No one saw who took the clothes, and they were
never recovered.
Another sorority house lost over $100 worth of
food from their basement storage room in recent
months. The door to the room was found unlocked at
odd times, a member said, and packages of cheese
were discovered behind the furnace, apparently for
pickup later.
Again, no one was charged with the theft and the
food was never recovered. Kitchen employes are
suspected, however, of taking it and reselling it for
cash. Last week the lock to the door was changed.
TV sets, tapestries, chests of drawers all have
disappeared from UNL houses one time or another.
And at least once a year several members notice
they're suddenly missing small amounts of cash or
other similar items.
The easy-come-easy-go atmosphere of Greek
houses would seem to make them easy prey for
Jack-the-Ripoff artists, and make incidents such as
these common occurrences.
Most fraternities leave their front doors unlocked,
.and few sororities or fraternities have locks on the
doors to their individual rooms, as in the residence
halls.
"Friends" are free to wander upstairs anytime to
look for a particular member, when perhaps they
don't know anyone in the house.
A check with several of UNL's houses, however,
shows the incidence of theft there is rare.
"Usually there are people around and about," said
Jane Anderson, coordinator for Pannel and IFC,
echoing what many houses said.
Sororities, usually more security-conscious, lock
doors at 10 or 11 p.m. and issue keys to all members,
she said.
In addition, many houses now have a "scriber"
from University Police to mark valuable items, she
said.
upstairs are checked against this list, University Police
Lt. Robert Edmunds said.
Student guards are assisted by regular partolmen
who patrol the campus at night.
If a prospective theft makes it upstairs without
suspicion, he may run into another problem.
Over the past two years, a new, interchangeable
lock system has been installed gradually by housing in
residence halls.
Before, when a student lost his room key, he could
buy a new one from the housing office for $ 1 .
Now, the lock is removed, all extra keys destroyed
and a new "core" made that fits the old door know.
So if you find a lost key, it's probably useless.
According to Joe Zannini, assistant director of
housing maintenance operations, the system is
computerized so no adjoining rooms have similar
cores which can be opened by the same key.
Also, keys for the new system can't be duplicated
anywhere in Lincoln.
The new system is installed in all residence halls
except Harper-Schramm-Smith, whose system will be
finished by summer, and Abel-Sandoz, which will
have it the summer after, Zannini said.
Union
The Union doesn's suffer from any "major" thefts,
said Daryl Swanson, Union assistant administrative
director. The many security steps taken there may be
one reason for the dearth of thefts, he said.
Three years ago, self-service magazine sales at the
North Desk were discontinued. Swanson said the
Union had lost $5,000 a year in magazines.
They now are sold by an attendant at a South
Union counter.
Preventive tips told
To keep from becoming a theft victim, University
Police recommend the following preventive measures:
Register valuables with the UNL police. Cards are
available from ASUN or at police headquarters, on
Avery Road, across the street from the north
fieldhouse.
Don't leave your room for any reason without
locking the door.
Don't take valuables with you when using a locker
in a public dressing room.
Mark your property. This includes books. Electric
engraving tools, called scribers, are available free to
students and faculty from living units or UNL police.
Don't park your bike in an out-of-the-way place.
Park it on bike racks in well-lit areas. Get a strong
chain and gook lock, and run the chain through the
front wheel and the frame.
Don't leave your car unlocked, and never leave
valuables, such as tape decks, in plain sight. Lock
these in your trunk of possible. '
Don't loan out your keys. It takes only minutes to
make a copy.
Don't be a victim of nonexistent companies or
charities. Soliciting on campus without a permit is
prohibited. Ask to see it.
Report a crime if you witness it. Or call UNL
Police at 472-3555 if you see a suspicious person in
your living unit.
W A (3
SAFETY PAYS
A 3 UBS
ALL WAYS
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SHOPLIFTING IS A CRIMirJAL OFFENSE
- IT'S 10-to-1 YOU'LL BE CAUGHT
- YOU'LL DISGRACE YOUR FAMILY --
YOU'LL SPEND TIME IN JAIL -
WE ARE CONTRIBUTORS TO
THE POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF NEBRASKA
All law enforcement officers, in uniform and plain clothes, are
ietermined to catch shoplifters! Don't take a chance . . . The odds
jre too great against you . . . and the sentence can bo severe.
THIS FIRM IS CO-OPERATING IN A PROGRAM OF CRIME PREVENTION
In only 15-20 per cent of all reported thefts is
the thief apprehended, according to Lt. Robert
Edmunds, University Police.
Last summer a similar problem was alleviated, he
said, when drinks in the North Crib were put on an
order basis. Before, the assembly line was arranged so
a student could fill up a glass and leave, or drink part
of it, refill it and then pay for only one drink, he said.
24 hours daily
Custodial employes occupy the building 24 hours
a day, all year long, he said. Storage and sales
inventories are kept accurately.
In the main lounge no furniture is loose or easily
movable. 30 potted plants are the only items
unattached.
Even at that, the plants (at $25-$75) and the pots
(worth $50-$ 1 00) disappear occasionally, he said.
The Union suffers mostly from what he called
"aggravating theft," of silverware, of dishes from the
cafeterias and directional signs saying "Room 232"
with an arrow.
"What anyone would want with that, I don't
know," he said.
Food service suffers
Food service suffers especially.
Every time the Union loses a white coffee cup, it
costs $1.06, said Bob Richeson, assistant director of
food service. Each year 960 white cups are stolen.
Spoons disappear about 45 dozen a year (42 cents
apiece), ashtrays, 90 dozen a year (30 cents apiece)
and black coffee .cups, about 25 dozen a year ($1.92
each). The thefts total over $2,100.
Swanson said his disappointment is that students
aren't "more possessive" about property their fees
have paid for, and don't volunteer information about
thefts they witness.
He said he can't believe any crime can be
committed easily in the Union with out
someone staff or the public-seeing it.
Bookstores .
The perfect crime: stealing the books from
another student, filling out a false drop slip and then
reselling the books to the bookstore.
Perfect? Hardly. Cooperation among the three
bookstores (Campus, University, Nebraska) will
almost guarantee your getting caught, said Lt. Robert
Edmunds, University Police.
When a student notices his books missing,
Edmunds explained, he calls UNL Police and is asked
to give the title, author and any other identifable
marks of the books.
That information is passed on to the bookstores,
he said, and each time a book is resold, it is checked
carefully for identifying marks.
In addition, the student selling the book has to
show his I.D. card and sign the sales receipt.
Not all identifiable
One problem is that not all books are identifable,
said Linda Baker, trade dept. manager at Nebraska
Bookstore.
If you sign your name on the first page, it will
simply be torn out, she said. She suggested marking
the book along the side, across the edges of the pages,
with a felt pen, or signing your name on a certain
page inside.
Some students are caught because they try to sell
books dealing with unrelated fields, Edmunds said,
such as pharmacy and law. Employes are aware of
books unlikely to go. together in one student's
cirriculum, he said.
Baker said at peak selling times, such as trie
beginning of the semesters, 70 additional people are
hired to work at Nebraska Bookstore, but not
necessarily for security.
page 7
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Wednesday, february 19, 1975
daily nebraskan
