at campus police IDing suspects Tuesday evening?
It all started when my laptop wouldn't connect to the network drives at work. So I took my laptop to Mosker, who said she'd try to fix it while I was out of the building at a meeting.
I came back from said meeting and arranged to meet Mosker and get my fixed laptop. We went out to a table where I tested the laptop and I had a budget handout to show her from my meeting. She caught me up on some of the day's news -- our friend Rustee mentioned that a laptop and iPod had been stolen that day. We're sitting there, chatting quietly (it's a library, after all), when four young men come out of the stairwell and come towards us.
They stood out, and Mosker said as much to me (again, sotto voce). We watched them split up, circle different parts of the stacks and then come back together close to us. I asked one young man if I could help him -- that's me, the ever helpful librarian. His response was not at all convincing.
The four guys headed for the stairwell, and another male stopped them. This guy was so confident, I thought he worked for the computer lab up one floor.
Mosker said, "think I should call campus police?" I nodded. She went to do that, while I sat there, shooting off e-mails to my staff and to other appropriate staff.
While I waited for Mosker, I wondered if we were overreacting. After all, our library is open to the public. But these guys stood out -- I won't give away all of my observations, but the one that stood out to me and to Mosker was that these guys were walking fast. Really fast. The only folks who walk that quickly through the stacks are the staff -- because we usually know right where we're going. And these guys were not library staff.
Eventually Mosker came back, we visited the circulation staff on the first floor, and then went our separate ways. I visited with my staff to get caught up on what they knew and then shared that information with Mosker and the circulation staff.
The fiance of the young woman whose laptop was stolen asked other folks in the library to help identify the alleged robbers. Turns out when these four young men showed up, at least one or more matched the description the other patrons gave. And those were the guys we saw. Maybe. Still doesn't make sense to me that they'd come back to the building a few hours after the robbery, but who knows -- maybe they wanted to steal more.
When I left work, the fiance, the young woman and two friends were at the library exit. The fiance remembered seeing me on the floor when the four guys came through -- they were going to campus police to ID the suspects the police caught. At first they wondered if I should come, but I didn't witness the crime.
So, I get in Big Blue and take off. I'm just about out of the campus parking lot when Mosker calls on the cell. Campus police called her and wanted her to come ID suspects. Since I was present when the guys walked the floor, would I come too?
Picked Mosker up, and we spent an hour and a half at campus police waiting to ID suspects. The young woman and friends were there too and we all waited in a stifling hot hallway with no chairs. Mosker and I were on good behavior -- we didn't compare our descriptions with anyone else there.
The police brought out one young man. He looked like the youngest one in the bunch we saw. When I said that he looked like one of the young men, the accused's response wasn't "I didn't do it!" but "oh, man!" I thought that was a strange response-- almost resignation.
The second young man did not look like the others.
While we're waiting, a woman and her young teenage son came through the hallway. She was mother to one of the suspects and was there to pick up her son. Lovely awkward situation. My radar went up, but thankfully nothing happened.
Mosker, the fiance and I were called into the squad room to provide more details -- of what we saw, the suspects, and of course, information on who we were.
The information card was a generic one, and it included requests for information on dress (I wanted to put down "business casual") and build (I wanted to put down Zaftig or Amazonian) which were not needed in this case.
We were given cards with case numbers and instructions to call campus police in case we saw the young men again. The two young men picked up were probably not the suspects, but were told to not come on campus anyway.
So that's why we spent Tuesday evening IDing suspects. The poor young woman had her dissertation and all of her data on her laptop. She backed up the dissertation on a jump drive, but unfortunately her data was not. She feels so stupid -- she went to the restroom and didn't want to pack up everything. I hope her laptop is recovered, but the odds are against her.
End of story, at least for now. No strange guys (or at least more than the usual) spotted in the library today.
