By Kyle Easton
Staff Writer

The Bates community has been marred by a number of thefts in recent weeks.

On January 23, a student in Parker Hall reported that a laptop, valued at $1800, had been stolen. The next day, in Page hall, another student reported that a laptop had been stolen, worth an estimated $1000. And again, three days later, on the 27th, a student reported yet another theft. This time, a resident of John Bertram Hall reported that he had been robbed of his DVD collection containing 210 discs, worth an estimated $3500.

Director of Security, Tom Carey sees these thefts as highly preventable, saying “Students are not locking their doors…” noting that in each case the students’ doors were left unlocked.

Residence halls have not been the only place where incident of theft has been reported, however. Students have reported three separate incidents of theft occurring in the Merrill Gymnasium locker rooms. The targeted item in each case was cash, with the students reporting sums of $10, $46, and $160 being reportedly stolen from inside their lockers.

On Feb. 3, a student reported that a debit card, an ATM debit card, a Mac Gray card, and $60 in cash had been taken from a bag that she had left in the coatroom of Chase Hall. Later, the debit card was used to purchase items from the College Book Store.

Security has discussed the Merrill thefts with the Athletic Department. Again, Carey found that the students robbed were not taking the proper precautions of guarding their property by “…using the locks given to them.” He went on to add that “Short of locking the locker room door, there really is not much that I can do.”

As for the coatroom incident, security encourages students not to leave anything of value, such as laptops, cash, or credit cards there, as they are at risk of being stolen.

The thefts have not only been limited to student’s property, but even the maintenance staff’s as well, as there have been reports of missing equipment recently.

As to the perpetrators of the crimes, Security suspects Bates’ own students are probably responsible. Carey cites a trend of “instant gratification” as being a possible motive, saying that people in today’s society “people see things and they have to have them now.” Though he does suspect students in the recent cases, he does encourage those who see anyone they deem “suspicious” to call Security, “just in case.”

To date, none of the above cases have been solved, though Carey does report that they currently have a suspect in the coatroom theft.






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