Theft on Warren Wilson Campus
Ruby Jane Moser | December 2, 2021
Carlos Wyrick
Outside of the Public Safety offices.
“I feel like there's a really bad problem with people stealing small things that don’t have much value,” said Caleb Counter, a junior at Warren Wilson College (WWC).
Counter has experienced their clothing being stolen from the dryers at WWC and have seen people wearing the stolen articles around campus.
They have also experienced misplacing their sweater and when going to retrieve it, witnessing someone walking off with it. Counter posted on the WWC app to ask for whoever had taken their sweater to return it, but they received no responses. The issue with people stealing things without major value is that it is not always worth reporting to Public Safety.
“If you're missing something or you think someone stole something, then you can go to housing, probably your area coordinator,” said Harley Woods, a junior at WWC, when talking about their dishes going missing. “And tell them ‘I'm missing something,’ and they will take a report, maybe do an investigation, and if you know who stole it, then they take legal action.”
Along with their dishes being stolen, Woods has experienced their car being broken into. The center console of their car was rummaged through and the bottom of an empty cigarette box was torn apart. Woods did not report it because nothing was stolen, but on the same night there were several other unlocked cars that were scoured.
All members of WWC’s community are expected to follow laws on the local (Buncombe county), state (North Carolina) and federal (United States) level. Public Safety is active on WWC’s campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They encourage anybody who has experienced crime being committed on campus to report it, and they assist students and staff in reporting these crimes.
Public Safety has reviewed around five reports of theft on campus this semester. When something is broken into or stolen, and the incident is reported to Public Safety, they usually check any cameras near the site of the incident. Then, depending on the damage and what was found on the cameras, Public Safety assists the person reporting the theft to the sheriff for the process to continue.
Public Safety sends out notifications via the WWC app and email to remind and alert campus of theft reports and what to do as prevention. Most theft on campus is reported by students, and usually involves broken-into cars and stolen bikes that were left unlocked.
“Two years ago, we had a few off-campus people (coming) and (stealing) bikes,” said Jon Davidson, the assistant director of Public Safety at WWC, about the issue of bike theft on campus. “... We were able to get a good picture of one of them, off of our camera system, and turn it into the sheriff department. And those people tried to turn it in at Play It Again Sports and they got arrested there.”
There is also an ongoing issue of items, such as utensils, plates, cups and bowls, from Gladfelter dining hall and Cowpie Cafe going missing.
According to Brian O’Loughlin, general manager of dining, over 1,000 forks, 500 spoons, 500 cups and a couple hundred knives have been taken from Gladfelter this year. Core Crew has put out collection boxes in the common rooms, kitchens, laundry rooms and next to Free Store bins in the dorm buildings on campus for people to anonymously return taken items.
“If it keeps up though, it has a cost,” said O’Loughlin about the taking of utensils from Gladfelter and CowPie. “... The more we have to spend replacing plates, bowls, cups, silverware, is the less we can spend on food.”
O’Loughlin encourages students, in hopes of making WWC more eco-friendly by reducing the use of disposable containers, to bring back tupperware containers from home after break.
Whether it be students’ personal items or communal wares of the dining halls, members of the WWC community have a responsibility to respect the things that aren’t theirs. However, since that isn’t always the case, Public Safety has a piece of advice.
“Just a reminder … lock your room doors and lock your car doors, and don't put things of any value in plain sight,” said Davidson.