Nearly $2,500 of equipment was stolen – including a computer monitor, cables and a keyboard – from the Webster University’s newly renovated soundstage Thursday, March 28.
Sources within the School of Communications (SOC) say camera footage revealed the suspect slipped in behind someone after they used their key-card to enter Sverdrup Hall at 6:57 p.m.
At sometime between 7 and 8 p.m. Sam Zoellner, a Film, Television, Video and Production (FTVP) major, and a group of classmates arrived at the soundstage to use the LED wall. Soon after arriving, someone pointed out that a computer monitor was gone.
At 7:30 p.m, another student reported seeing a man leaving Sverdrup with a stuffed bag to Public Safety.
Marty Martin, director of the SOC Media Center, says the room the thief found required key-card access and would have been secure had the door been left properly closed.
The man then reportedly made his way to the second set of doors, which he was able to forcibly open because the left-hand door was not completely re-latched.
It seems the theft began without a hiccup.
Martin estimates the projected cost of the stolen items qualifies a felony offense, the most expensive of which being the lighting control board, which sells for around $2,200.
If it is the same man Martin suspects, he claims the individual may have been found in the building several times over the past couple of months.
“There’s a history of people who are in the building that shouldn’t be in the building,” Martin said. “They may have ran him out once or twice already.”
Public Safety logs reveal a trespassing incident occurred in the Sverdrup building on Jan. 29. The Webster Groves Police Department was called and the suspect, who did not have any active warrants, was issued a warning and released.
The suspect was spotted walking by a Public Safety employee driving north on Edgar Rd. who then contacted Webster’s Public Safety Dispatch and the Webster Groves Police Department. The suspect, who was not found with the stolen items on him, was arrested and released due to a technicality.
SOC officials are still unsure if more items from the school were stolen, as it is possible the man was in more than one room. FTVP students and faculty were unable to use the state-of-the-art resources until Friday afternoon. Martin bought some replacement equipment, and says the schedule of using the soundstage for shoots has not been impacted.
“I think that is one thing that our teachers try to prepare us for in the film program. You can do all the preparation possible, but you are always going to show up to the set and something is going to happen. So, we just didn’t use the wall and that was that,” Zoellner said.
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