--- Begin Forwarded Message --- Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 10:50:50 -0500 From: Kathleen Weessies <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Possible massive thefts in the midwest Sender: Kathleen Weessies <[log in to unmask]> This is not another depressing announcement about thefts at Michigan State University. I'm instead going to drag a lot of other people into the situation. The FBI agent I have been working with approved my sending this message to warn others. The FBI contacted me earlier this week about a suspect they now have in custody who they think stole items from about 37 universities in the midwest last summer. From the suspect's girlfriend, they have reconstructed a list of places they visited, which included universities in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. I saw the list of Michigan universities, and it included WMU, MSU, EMU, UofM (not sure which campus), and Wayne State. The FBI plans to contact these places, and may have already, but who knows who they called. When they initially called MSU last winter they talked to campus police who at that point didn't know anything about my thefts. The suspect's focus was on items relating to American Indians and the American West (in his photograph he was even wearing a T-shirt with lots of arrowheads on it!). The girlfriend would sit in the car while he would go into the library and locate and steal materials. Sometimes he would pose as a desperate grad student who forgot his ID, and get a coed to check something out for him. Since my materials don't circulate, he snuck into my back room and hid the books in a large bag. He visited our campus 3-4 times. I encourage everyone, especially libraries in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky to look over your valuable items relating to Native Americans and the American West. The suspect is a 6'5" white male, skinny, has long hair in a ponytail, and perhaps discolored hands. Anyone remember dealing with such a person? Last June a student worker here stopped just such a person from walking out with a bag full of 19th century county atlases. He said he wanted to take them down to the 2nd floor to the color photocopier, but she was really suspicous and wouldn't let them go. She saved those items, but obviously that wasn't his only visit. Kathleen Weessies Maps/GIS Librarian Library 100 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48823 517-432-9669 [log in to unmask] --- End Forwarded Message ---