Wilder Plagued by Weird Theft and Hooliganism
By Greg Walters

Dining facilities aren’t the only buildings getting stolen from these days. Wilder Student Union, in fact, seems to be experiencing its own petty-crime wave.
This month thieves broke into two video games and, in a presumably unrelated incident, absconded with four large photographs from the basement hall. Last weekend the police were called out when a belligerent crowd — including at least one former convict and another young man with an outstanding arrest warrant — tried to push its way into the ’Sco.
The incident at the ‘Sco, according to some reports, bordered on violence.
Anyone — theoretically — is allowed into the ’Sco, as long as they’re invited in by an Oberlin student. But for the past couple weeks, non-students have been a bit too forward in soliciting entrance from hapless students, administrators say.
“There’s a number of [non-Oberlin students] that stand around the periphery of the entranceway and try to hook up with students to get into the ‘Sco,” Safety and Security Director Bob Jones said. “One or two became a little persistent about it, and we had to call in the police.”
The scene nearly boiled over.
“They were trying to threaten their way in,” Assistant Director of the Student Union Chris Baymiller said. “They were frightening and threatening the staff, as in, ‘no one’s tough enough to keep us out.’ That kind of thing.”
The crowd eventually departed, and the police arrived shortly thereafter.
The problem though, isn’t a new one — Security says it’s been going on in various forms for years —and isn’t likely to go away in the near future.
“We have been going through and seeing if there’s a pattern of any certain students who are vulnerable to this,” Jones said. “If we do find a pattern, we might email these people about our concern.”
Video game vandalism is also, of course, not without precedent. It happens on an almost yearly basis.
“This thing is almost cyclical,” Baymiller said.
Looting arcades can be surprisingly lucrative, too.

“One break-in a few years back involved more than a 1,000 dollars in change,” Baymiller said. “The parents of the kids who did it became suspicious when their kids came home jingling like sleigh bells with a $1,000 dollars worth of quarters in their pockets.”

In another incident two years ago, someone made off with the change machine in broad daylight. The machine was found later lying in a creek a few miles off campus, knocked to pieces as if by a sledgehammer.

This year’s thieves, however, remain at large, and the net value of their heist is anyone’s guess. Although there is a surveillance camera in the arcade, the image of the crime, apparently, is out of focus.

“We may not have done everything electronically to see if we can get it focused,” Jones said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
The arcade will remain locked until the machines can be repaired.
Photographs, though, are a new criminal commodity.

For years the College has commissioned students to photograph bands who play Oberlin, turning the best shots into a long term display.

Those stolen were of bands that played at the ‘Sco — The White Stripes, At the Drive In, Blonde Redhead and Luna — and were commissioned from Oberlin students by the Student Center.

The pictures cost the College somewhere around $250 each to produce. But since the negatives are unaccounted for, the photos are also an irreplaceable piece of Oberlin history.

Baymiller has placed fliers around campus advertising a reward for their return. “I want the photos back,” he said, “no questions asked. If anyone sees them in a room, take them, they’re stolen.”