Unidentified thieves raid bookstore

Milligan College students, suspected of stealing a mounted buffalo head worth $1,500 to $2,000 from the college bookstore during the weekend of Nov. 5, have not been identified.

“I would like to see anyone involved in this incident no later than noon on Monday, November 15,” stated a campus-wide e-mail sent on Nov. 10 by Mark Fox, vice president for student development, who called the incident a “prank gone bad.”

As of late Monday afternoon, no one had turned in any information to Fox pertaining to this incident.
If the thieves had turned themselves in by the deadline, Fox said, “They would have been prosecuted internally, not legally.”

A police report was filed with the Elizabethton Police Department when the incident occurred, but an investigation has not begun. Fox wanted to give the culprits a chance to surrender before the police became involved.

Since no one has produced any information about the missing head, the police will now investigate the matter.

An $800 keyboard was also damaged during the incident, which Fox said will be replaced by the thieves if they are identified. If no thieves are identified, Fox said it will be replaced using money from the “general operating fund, which means every student will be paying for it.”

According to Jack Presnell, manager of bookstore operations, the thieves are suspected of entering the bookstore through the ceiling because of dust particles that were on the floor beneath a ceiling panel that was out of place.

Junior Richard Greatti, bookstore student worker, said that other than the missing buffalo head and damage to the ceiling and keyboard, nothing else was stolen or damaged.

Security patrols the campus 24 hours a day. However, Fox said he does not know where security was when the incident occurred. Fox said security procedures may change, such as buildings being locked earlier.

The head is of a real buffalo, which was mounted on the wall behind the cash register. Presnell, who discovered the damage Monday morning, estimated that the head protrudes 18 inches from the wall and weighs at least 80 pounds.

Jonathan Robinson, Presnell’s predecessor in the bookstore, said the buffalo head had been mounted in the bookstore for about 10 years, and before that it was located in the science building.