Weird thefts around MRU
Bathing suits, loads of laundry, stop signs — oh my!
Kaity Brown
Staff Writer
Phones, iPods, purses and wallets all have something in common — they’re likely targets for thieves. But what about bathing suits, loads of laundry and stop signs?
Apparently even those items are attractive to sticky fingers, because there has been a number of odd disappearances of personal items around Mount Royal University.
Shauna Snow-Capparelli, a journalism professor at MRU, has had two bathing suits stolen from recreation over the past few months.
Shauna Snow-Capparelli has had two of her bathing suits stolden from MRU's recreation centre in the last six months. Photo: Kaity Brown
“Why would somebody want women’s bathing suits that have been worn? It’s not like you could go ‘Oh I like this so I’m just going to take it,’ because it’s not going to fit,” Snow-Capparelli said.
The first bathing suit was hanging on the locker to dry when it disappeared. Snow-Capparelli had actually locked the bathing suit through her lock, yet someone managed to take it.
“I think someone actually had to cut it off to take it,” she said.
“Okay. One bathing suit gone, no big deal. But then in February I made a mistake and I actually left my bathing suit hanging outside of the shower,” Snow- Capparelli said.
When she returned first thing the next morning, she was surprised to find that it wasn’t there.
Snow-Capparelli said she had assumed the bathing suit would be okay because she had left it in the faculty locker room where people can only enter if they have a specific number key-code to get it, and it is common to leave your bathing suit hanging out to dry.
Snow-Capparelli went back to the recreation desk. “I said to the guy, ‘Well, where are these bathing suits going? Because this is the second one now.’ He said, ‘You know we’ve had a lot of complaints of people having their bathing suits going missing. It’s just women’s bathing suits and we think that they are being stolen.’”
Calvin Aubin, the facilities supervisor at recreation, has said they have not received any reports about stolen or missing bathing suits.
“There are certain times that we have locker break-ins,” Aubin said. “(Thieves) will come in with lock cutters and cut the lock right off and take things.”
“That’s usually when they are looking for money.”
Residence is another place where items often go missing. On the RAC (Resident Activities Council) MRU Facebook page, a student named Stephen Andersen was asking if anyone had seen his load of laundry that went missing.
“I just found some of my clothes that were taken from me a few weeks ago in the laundro-mat on the top of the free bin, very happy I got most of it back, but if anyone looked in there and took a red Che shirt, a Blizzcon 2011 shirt, a few pairs of jeans, and/or some white towels with blue stripes, there’s a lot more missing but these are things I either need or that have sentimental value,” Andersen wrote.
“Back story: they were taken from the dryer around 7 p.m. a while back while I was watching a movie and they weren’t anywhere in the laundromat when I searched, I talked to security to no avail.”
Terrance Zeniuk, manager of security at MRU, said he’s noticed a few odd items go missing while working for security.
There are normal thefts that have been happening, Zeniuk said, such as stolen laptops, the occasional locker break-in and stolen valuables in residence when students forget to lock their dorms.
Around campus, however, Zeniuk said the most unusual thefts lately have been stop signs, the most recent occurring in the past two weeks.
“Somebody took one of our A-frame signs that said ‘No Stopping’ from outside recreation. I don’t know what some- body would do with it other than use it for a display or for some kind of piece of furniture.
“People will take down stop signs,” Zeniuk continued, noting that a sign was taken near the east entrance, between the new conservatory and east residence.
“Then someone also took a stop sign from the north entrance as well,” he said. “This has been over a period of over 14 months. I guess people are taking stop signs to decorate, or maybe they could use it as a coffee table, I have no idea, but it creates a danger until we can get the sign replaced.”
Zeniuk advised people be cautious with their personal belongings around MRU and to keep their eyes open.
“When people are sharing a space with other people, they are more vulnerable and therefore they need to take extra precautions in terms of securing their personal belongings,” he said.
