Monday, April 8, 1996
Computer hardware, phones, personal items damaged in pass-key
burglaryBy Brooke Olson
Daily Bruin Staff
The Daily Bruin office was vandalized over the weekend, causing
an unestimated amount of damage to computers, phone lines and
office materials, said university police officer Perry Todd.
The incident occurred sometime between 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 10
a.m. Sunday.
"There is no sign of forced entry, and we can’t tell how many
people were involved in the vandalization," Todd said.
Six phone cords, including one modem line, and a computer’s
network connection were cut with scissors. The vandals also damaged
key boards and computer monitors by spraying soy sauce and ketchup
on the hardware. Photographs and papers were cut in half, pasted on
walls and stapled to the walls, staff members said.
"I’m just grateful that it wasn’t something worse. When I heard
we had been vandalized, I thought that computers had been stolen.
Instead, it was all about glitter and soy sauce," said Roxane
Márquez, the Daily Bruin editor in chief.
Police took various pieces of evidence, including soy sauce
packets and pieces of tape, in an attempt to lift fingerprints.
"I took an adhesive spray can that had been used and some other
items but I didn’t find any prints," Todd said. "I did, however,
find a lot of smudges consisting of tiny dots which indicated that
the vandal or vandals were wearing latex gloves."
"We will be paying much more attention to security in the
future," Márquez added. "We will be cooperating with the
police in any matter they see fit."
Police are labeling the incident as a pass-key burglary, which
is a theft in which the suspects need to have a key in order to
gain access to the building. There are no suspects at this time,
police said.
"The detectives are going to do a follow-up but unfortunately
there’s not much of a follow-up because there’s not much evidence
to go on," Todd said.
If you have any information on the case, please call the UC
police department at 825-1491.