Cafeteria Employee Stolen from Leo's
LEO’S—Officers from the Department of Public Safety are investigating the theft of an employee from Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall late Thursday evening. According to the dining hall’s policy, students may not take anything bigger than an ice cream cone or piece of fruit with them out of the facility.
Co-workers reported the disappearance of the employee, Mitch Adams, 34, approximately two hours into his shift at the dining hall’s stir-fry station. No other equipment from the station was reported missing.
“One minute he was standing next to me, frying some beef, and the next minute he was gone,” said Kevin Richardson, the worker’s partner at the station. “I didn’t see anyone take anyone pulling Tupperware out of their bookbag or anything, so I couldn’t believe he was stolen.”
Witnesses reported seeing a white, brown-haired male student of average build leave the station with a “person-sized bulge” under his hooded sweatshirt around 7 pm, shortly before Adams was reported missing.
You can pretty much steal anything in Leo’s as long as no one’s looking,” said Keith O’Brien (COL ’11), one of the witnesses. “Though the Grab-‘n’-Go lady would’ve been way more convenient to take.”
The incident comes as the level of theft at the dining hall has increased steeply in recent weeks. Dining Hall manager Sam Winslow said he fears further escalation. “What’s next? A panini machine? Soon they’re gonna take something we can’t easily replace.”
Though DPS could not confirm a motive, the theft of Adams is believed to be a crime of convenience. Students have taken to the stir-fry station, officials said, and the ability to have a personal stir-fry chef in one’s dorm room may have been too attractive.
“They should have used caution and made sure the employee was securely fastened to the station like they do with their waffle makers,” DPS Director Jeff Van Slyke said. According to Van Slyke, DPS will be focusing its search for the missing stir-fry cook with a three-pronged strategy of waiting until someone tells them where he is.
To facilitate this strategy, DPS sent out a campus-wide bulletin notifying students of the theft and stressing that “all sightings of Leo’s stir-fry cooks in dorms should be reported” in the unlikely event that it is the stolen Adams. In addition, DPS has set up a drop-box behind Leo’s where the guilty student may return the worker, no questions asked.
If the culprit does not return the worker by October 15 and is discovered, he will have his remaining Flex Dollars revoked for the duration of the current semester.
Upon learning of the theft and the repercussions the culprit may face, the brain cavities of the members of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee exploded.
