Unsolved theft details

By Вen Li

In response to criticism from Students’ Union Vice-President Robbie White last week regarding the SU Copy Centre safe heist, Campus Security Manager Lanny Fritz explained the difficulty in providing a constant presence with limited personnel.

“This is a large community. There are 29,000 doors on campus, so it is impossible to check every door or back room,” said Fritz. “We rely on what we observe from foot patrols, closed-circuit cameras, but neither were trained on that area.”

Between 4:45 p.m. Jan. 10 and 7 a.m. Jan. 11, unknown culprits removed a safe containing $1,400 in change from the Copy Centre via a corridor not normally accessed by the public.

According to Fritz, the unlikely robbery probably followed a bizarre course.

One or more suspects gained entry into the rear of the Copy Centre by breaking through the wall of an adjoining janitorial storage space. After proceeding through a plumbing space less than one foot in diameter, the suspect opened a locked door to an adjoining auxiliary space behind the Copy Centre. The suspect then gained entry into the space containing the unanchored safe by climbing through a false ceiling via a microwave oven resting on a table. Once inside, the suspects removed the safe and exited the building on the north side through a service exit.

Fritz believes the complexity of the theft required intimate knowledge of the Copy Centre and adjoining spaces.

No further information has been generated by the Calgary Police investigation.