Dormitories locked down; three students in custody

Kellen Jenkins / The Bulletin

Chad Whitlow, a freshman Biology Major, uses his id card to open the main doors at the main doors in the Towers Complex. Due to the recent theft of a set of keys used by the maintenance staff the Towers will be on lockdown until further notice.

On Wednesday afternoon, three freshman male students were arrested and taken into custody at the Lyon County Jail for involvement in the theft of tools, radios, a maintenance cart and keys in the Morse Complex Maintenance Shop. Among the stolen items was the master key, which unlocks every room in the residence halls.

“We anticipate that they will be charged in the crime,” said Chris Hoover, Director of ESU Police and Safety. “I’m glad that we got this taken care of in a quick and orderly fashion.”

Hoover refused to identify arrested individuals or acknowledge whether or not they are ESU students. Witnesses said they saw the three male students escorted into police vehicles and that the students were residents of SE Morse Hall. Lyon County jail released a jail roster request from The Bulletin, but refused to identify if any charges had been pressed.

At 2:42 a.m. on Tuesday, an alarm was set off in the Maintenance Shop. The next morning, maintenance staff discovered that items were stolen. Because of the theft of the master key, the vice president of student life and the director of residential life made the decision to lock down the residence halls at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, requiring students to use their identification cards to enter.

Complex staff said the policy became effective as soon as possible for safety reasons. It has not yet been determined if the 24-hour lockdown will continue now that the keys have been recovered.

“As soon as we made a decision [to lockdown], we didn’t want to wait to notify residents because we don’t know when we’re actually going to be able to get a hold of all of the residents,” said Drew Jahr, Towers Complex coordinator. “It was more of a safety thing that we wanted to go ahead and initiate.”

The cost of changing the locks in the approximately 700 residence hall rooms was estimated to be around $10,000.

“The keys have been recovered, so we are not going to be changing the locks,” Jahr said.

The Complex staff members had already initiated plans to have all locks changed by the weekend, but now feel that such action is no longer necessary. In addition to keys being recovered, the stolen maintenance cart was found in Wooster Lake.

Some students felt that they were inconvenienced by the sudden change of policy because they were not notified of the new policy until after it had become effective.

“I believe they should have notified the students before locking the doors,” said Stephen Jowers, freshman elementary education major. “It’s a change we weren’t used to and some people don’t carry their card with them during the day. It was kind of a shock to make sure you had to have your card before you went outside.”

Other students debated about whether or not the lockdown was a good idea at all.

“It’s not a good idea if a student stole the master key [because] obviously they can still get into the dorms,” said William Hohmeier, freshman business major. “If it was not a student, then it is a good idea to have the lockdown.”

Letters and emails were sent to all complex residents about the incident. Resident assistants made additional rounds through the residence halls as an extra safety precaution and were instructed not to speak with members of the media. RAs also held floor meetings or personal meetings with residents to discuss the incident.

Prior to the arrests, Jahr encouraged students to report anything suspicious to the Complex reception desks and the police.

“Residents are responsible for their safety, so they need to act accordingly,” Jahr said.