In September, more than 1,000 issues of the Western Courier were stolen after a controversial SGA story was headlined. This past Friday, it happened again.
“They weren’t at the Union at any of the racks, they weren’t at the library, and I believe some of the residence halls they were taken from,” said Garrick Hodge, Western Courier Managing Editor.
Staff at the Courier reported the incident to police to try to prevent this from happening again.
“I don’t think that most people know that stealing the Courier is a theft,” said Hodge. “It says on Page Two of our News section ‘one copy per student.’ We made sure to put that in there.”
Although no one was caught for the September theft, this case had a different outcome. On Sunday, an individual went into OPS and turned themselves in.
“Someone came into our office and admitted that they were the ones who had done that,” said Tom Clark, OPS Lieutenant.
Police had already been following some clues, but say witnesses were the key in this investigation.
“Somebody had seen the person do this,” said Clark, “and while they didn’t directly report it to use, it ended up getting reported to us and then we went and spoke to the witness.”
Reports are now sent to the State Attorney’s Office and possible charges will be pursued from there.
Police urge anyone who witnesses a crime to stop by the Office of Public Safety or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers.
