This week, the Oberlin Police Department charged 21-year-old Oberlin resident Adam Leroy Stump with burglary, criminal trespass and theft from several campus buildings. On probation at the time of the thefts, Stump was released from prison three months prior and is now facing incarceration for stealing nearly $600 worth of goods, including female undergarments and sexual aids from student residences in Allencroft House.
Late last week, two student bike co-op employees caught Stump in the co-op. They initially assumed Stump was another employee, and though they noted that the cash box was open on top of the safe, they reportedly assumed Stump was counting the petty cash. Then students noticed other suspicious signs like an open wallet and CDs on the ground and began questioning Stump, who was in possession of a green bag filled with bike parts. When questioned, Stump tried to escape on a bicycle. However, one of the students prevented him from leaving by grabbing the wheel and then alerted the police.
Stump admitted to the police to have stolen bike parts, CDs from the trunk of a car behind the bike co-op, and two credit cards, later identified as belonging to the open wallet in the bike co-op. He was then later connected to another car break-in, from which he probably stole a key for the bike co-op.
Police found two portable CD players in the bag, which Stump claimed to have found in a dumpster behind CVS. They also found a reference library book about amateur CB radio from the Oberlin College Library in Stump’s possession, implicating Stump in a recent theft of a CB radio out of a vehicle on South Main Street.
Stump was arrested and consented to a search of his room at his home on Lincoln Street. At the residence, the police discovered an orange bag filled with women’s underwear, lingerie, lubricant and sex toys, as well as a portable tape player. Stump claimed the orange bag belonged to his mother; however, when questioned, Stump’s mother denied his claim. His father later identified the tape player as belonging to Stump.
Sophomore Shelly Bradley, a resident of Allencroft, reported to ResLife on Feb. 14 that a master key was missing, but was told that ResLife didn’t want to advertise a missing key while the case was under investigation. Bradley noticed missing items from some boxes in the basement about a week after Feb. 8.
“There were textbooks and picture frames that he could have sold, but the only thing he stole was clothes,” Bradley said. Stump admitted to having stolen the orange bag and its contents from Allencroft House on Friday, Feb. 8.
In addition to the Bike Co-op and Allencroft thefts, Stump also admitted to stealing a portable CD player from Harkness Co-op’s dining room. On Feb. 8, first-year Evan Smith, having just finished pizza crew, left his backpack in the dining room while he went to his room to study. When he returned at around 9 p.m., his backpack was missing. He later found it in the bathroom with its contents dumped on the ground and his portable CD player missing. “People in Harkness were shocked. Something interesting about this place is that the door is always left open. Nothing was stolen last semester. Even security was shocked,” Smith said.
Smith filed a report with Safety and Security, and although he never filed a report with the Oberlin Police, he received a call a week later from the police saying they had retrieved his portable CD player.
Many students have expressed a growing concern for the recent increase of thefts on campus. “I’ve heard that lots of stuff is getting stolen out of locked rooms, which is very disturbing,” Senior Felicia Lin said. Regardless, many students are not fully supportive of the College’s experiments with more exclusive dorm accessibility.
Evidence does not yet suggest a connection between Stump’s crimes and the earlier thefts at Lord/ Saunders. However, the Oberlin Police Department is not dismissing the possibility of a connection at this point in the investigation. “Someone involved in the case told me that this guy has been in jail more times than I have fingers,” Bradley said.
“On a college campus, dorms serve as your home, so when things are getting taken from your home it’s an even greater invasion of privacy,” senior Kim Cook said.
“When it comes to safety, somebody has to act right away. You can replace computers or CDs, but you can’t replace people,” Bradley said.