A wave of recent thefts has left many Eastman students and faculty suspicious of their own community.
In the past two weeks at least five students and faculty members have had valuables ? mostly electronic equipment ? stolen from their practice rooms or offices. One student lost a flute but later recovered it.
Eastman campus security has declined to comment on any leads regarding these cases.
On Friday, Sept. 6, at approximately 8 p.m., sophomore Olivia DePrato was practicing in a fourth floor practice room in the Eastman Annex building. After taking a short break, she returned to the room to find both her portable mini disc player and her microphone missing.
“I’m sure it was someone from school because I didn’t see anyone [suspicious] around,” DePrato explained. “I don’t leave anything [valuable] in the practice rooms anymore, not even for a few minutes.”
Instead of her mini disc recorder and microphone, DePrato found a friend’s mobile phone, when she returned to the room. The mobile phone had been stolen just days earlier from a different practice room, suggesting that the thefts are a serial case.
“Apparently the person was in a hurry and dropped the phone,” she says.
Three days prior, on Sept. 3, a Sharp boombox belonging to senior percussion major Jill Pritchard was stolen from the Annex basement.
“Percussion students share the basement practice room, so about 20 students have a key to the room,” Pritchard said, “but I don’t think it was someone from the percussion studio. Maybe someone just left the door open for a few minutes,” allowing a thief to sneak into the room.
Jazz faculty member Bill Dobbins also had a Palm Pilot organizer stolen during the same period of time.
These thefts follow last year’s series of attacks on streets surrounding the Eastman School of Music. Though no one was seriously injured in any of these incidents, security measures have since been increased at the building.
Henderson can be reached at ohenderson@campustimes.org.
