Many valuable items have gone missing in recent months as a result of increased locker room theft. According to student resource officer Brady Sullivan, late October and early November  showed a spike of theft in boys’ and especially the girls’ locker compared rooms to last year. The items stolen range from iPods and cell phones to designer boots, and other assorted items.

This year, with the help of district officer Richard Pacheco, Sullivan has already caught three students stealing things.

While Sullivan doesn’t have specifics on the number of cases filed from last year, he’s noticed a significant increase in the amount of students coming in to his office to report stolen items.  He attributes the increase in theft to factors varying from the weakened economy to repeat offenders becoming more skilled.

According to Sullivan, the majority of thefts happen during the school day, to those who don’t bother using the protection of padlock.

“If it’s locked up in a locker, that eliminates the access for somebody to go in there and steal it,” Sullivan said.

With few to no people in the locker rooms during the school day, Sullivan said the thieves have ample opportunity to steal things from open lockers. Sullivan plans to fight this factor first by making the locker rooms less accessible during classes, when most of the reported crimes have occurred.

Junior Ted Fields became a victim of locker theft last spring when someone took his Motorola RAZR and iPod Classic after school while he was playing in a baseball game. Fields found the open locker upon his return to East.

“It hit me like a brick wall, I was very upset,” Fields said. “After a couple days of that, I kinda let it go.”

Fields reported the theft in an incident report form the next day in the SRO’s office; however, the stolen electronics were never recovered. According to Fields, he had locked his locker before leaving, but had forgotten to spin the dial on the padlock, which gave the thieves much easier access.

“You’ve really got to be responsible with yourself,” Fields said. “I learned the hard way.”

Associate Principal Steve Loe said that the best way to prevent easy crimes like this is for more kids to use their locks, and not leave things on the benches.

“More than likely, the [people] that go down and [steal] are going to go for the easy pickings,” Loe said.

The administration and Sullivan have made at least one attempt to warn physical education students about the theft problem.Early in the school year, Sullivan took time out of the regular gym classes to speak to Fields and others on the importance of keeping lockers locked.

In addition to the talks with gym classes, Sullivan also spoke with administrators on what measures they could take to minimize the incidents. These measures include a type of sting operation, involving leaving spare money hanging out of a locker, and assigning a school official to watch for any who try to grab it, a measure Sullivan has tried in the past.

He said that of the near 12 reported incidents, in addition to the claims that go unreported, very few thieves are actually ever caught.

“Unfortunately we don’t have a great clearance rate on the locker room thefts,” Sullivan said, “We usually catch two or three a year.”

Sullivan said that despite the low number of thieves caught, he thinks that it is the same people often committing crime after crime, so even catching a few is productive.

The main reason SROs and district police are unable to catch most of those who do steal is because of where it’s happening. Almost anywhere else in the school there would be a security camera nearby to monitor the whole situation.  However, in the locker room, this isn’t possible due to strict privacy standards.

For those who do get caught, the punishment ranges from school disciplinary action such as suspension. Most cases have been dealt with at school, and the victim must first file charges before the case will go before a judge.

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