By Shane Dingman
A bizarre theft at Neill-Wycik on Feb. 22 is a reminder leaving your doors and windows unlocked around Ryerson is always a bad idea.
Kesta Graham’s portable stereo went missing from her second-floor apartment in the Gerrard Street co-op. She woke up Saturday morning and although nothing else seemed out of place, she wondered, “Hey, who moved my stereo?”
Neill-Wycik Security believes around 2 a.m. that night someone broke in through a townhouse window that connects to the co-op building from McGill Street.
Once inside, the thief apparently broke through another window into the second floor of the apartment complex, leaving an unidentified TV inside the townhouse. Graham, a first-year theatre student, says around that time people were coming in and out of her apartment.
“That’s how these things happen,” says Kim O’Keefe, Neill-Wycik’s security chief. “People figure that, you know, the paperboy will be coming or whatever, so they leave their doors open.” O’Keefe says there’s no set policy regarding thefts.
However since O’Keefe took over the job in April 1996, they have been successful in catching would-be thieves by reviewing security video tapes. This time however, after reviewing two hours of tape before and after the approximate time of the theft, no trace of any stereo-carrying culprits were found.
Neill-Wycik reminded its members last September to lock their doors to prevent theft. Security personnel carry poster-sized “reminders” with them on regular rounds to tape them inside of any door left propped open with no one in sight. O’Keefe plans to suggest another round of posters “that say, basically, ‘Hey, if we were robbers we could have taken everything’” within the next two weeks.
As for Graham, she has been in contact with 52 Division but they aren’t optimistic about finding her stereo. She says, “Security said they were investigating, and they told me not to talk about it too much.” O’Keefe says the investigation has been completed, and is perplexed that Graham thinks she’s not allowed to talk about it. “I don’t know how she got that impression. I mean we don’t want people to get nervous unnecessarily, but if she wanted to talk about it she could.”
The tale will be repeated in the April edition of Neill-Wycik’s newsletter, and there are plans to put metal grates over the windows allowing access to the building. The TV remains unidentified.
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