On-campus robbery goes unnoticed by student

Photo illustration by Audie Summary

Unknown to most students, on Sunday, Sept. 26, a CNU student was held at scissor point while the Telephone University Advancement office, which helps collect donations from Alumni for CNU, was robbed. The CNU Police Department came to the scene immediately, located on the third floor of the Christopher Newport University’s Administration building, and collected evidence.

Junior Sarah Cribb, a supervisor for Telephone University Advancement, was waiting on the third floor kitchen area for CNU PD to unlock her office doors so she could begin her workday when she heard footsteps. Thinking it was the police, she emerged from the kitchen to find a “white, balding man in his 40’s or 50’s” walking down the hallway. Confused as to whether he may have been from the police department, she informed the man that she was waiting for someone to unlock the doors. Cribb said, “He told me the doors were unlocked already and tried to get me to follow him. That’s when I saw that he had a stack of Target© gift cards and had a pair of scissors in the other hand”. After the incident, Cribb realizes that scissors are not as dangerous as a gun, but she still states that, “I was still really nervous and shaken up from it. I don’t think he was a dangerous man. He didn’t look homeless or mentally unstable”.

Cribb states that she then told the man that CNU PD was on their way to unlock her doors and that she would wait where she was. After hearing this, the robber became frightened and ducked into another office to hide. CNU PD shortly came up the elevator and Cribb quickly informed them about the man hiding on that very same floor. CNU Police Chief Brown said, “We went out looking for the bad guy and we didn’t find him. We came back and processed the crime scene”.

Brown states that, “We have an officer that went through a 12 week forensic academy up in Richmond”. He stated that the trained officer, Lieutenant Austin, “has the ability to process crime scenes: photographs, finger print evidence, and GSR. He has a wealth of techniques that he has been exposed to and practiced and we bought the equipment related to the collection of that evidence”.

While fingerprints and other evidence was gathered, it could take up to six to eight months to obtain results due to the severe backup in forensic labs from national budget cuts.

“We are working with the Newport News Police Department because it seems similar to a burglary of a church”. The church that was the site of the burglary is located off of Hiden Boulevard, less than a mile away from CNU’s campus. “The descriptions are very similar so we are sharing our information and they are sharing their information” said Chief Brown of NN PD in hopes that the exchange of evidence will allow the perpetrator to be caught quicker.

Sarah Cribb also stated that the office was only unlocked and unoccupied for about thirty minutes before the robbery took place, but Chief Brown advises that all doors, especially to offices, be kept locked at all times.

“We now go in pairs and CNU PD escorts us up, so they came up with a solution that I am comfortable with” said Cribb. In response to the crime, policy changes have occurred to ensure student safety. “Fundamentally, after hours, they will be meeting an officer in the lobby and they will walk up and do a sweep of the area and then allow them to go in. So we’re going to support them more” stated Chief Brown. For everyone to continue practicing safety, Chief Brown suggests that all CNU students plug in the CNU PD phone number, (757) 594-7777, into their cell phones to report any suspicious behavior and to make sure that they are aware of their surroundings at all times.

Posted by Brittany Mazanetz on Oct 6 2010. Filed under Crime Log, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.