Employees arriving for work at the Hurst Center and Alumni Center on campus were met with a shocking scene on Aug. 15. Staff members arrived to find their workspaces left in shambles from a burglary that had happened the night before. They immediately reported the incident to the Weber State University Police Department.
Within the hour, according to sources close to the alumni center, WSUPD had the crime scene cordoned off to begin an active investigation.
Extensive damage was done to office equipment in the Alumni Center and Hurst Center. Smashed computer monitors, Xerox machines, printers and even coffee makers were among the many items destroyed in the burglary.
“Computer monitors were broken and keyboards were busted in half,” Nancy Collinwood, executive director of alumni relations, said. “Everything that was on a desk was swept up and thrown on the floor.”
Collinwood said that beyond the destruction of equipment, the burglar also did things like dump out boxes filled with papers and scattered office supplies all over the place.
WSUPD reported that there was an estimated $4,000 worth of damage done to the Alumni Center and Hurst Building, with the lower level of the Alumni Center reportedly being among the worst hit by the burglary.
The perpetrator further vandalized by urinating and defecating inside the premises. The perpetrator also left behind significant amounts of blood for WSUPD to find, believed to be the result of various scrapes and cuts the suspect got from using their hands to carry out most of the vandalism.
WSUPD called the crime a “crime of opportunity,” as investigations didn’t reveal any signs of a forceful entry. WSUPD believes that the burglar had gained access to the buildings through an unsecured door or other non-forceful means.
The police quickly found a visual of the suspected burglar through security camera footage. According to WSUPD, the security footage revealed that the perpetrator had entered the buildings shortly after midnight and spent more than an hour inside.
WSUPD shared pictures taken from the security footage with local businesses and were able to positively identify the suspect. A search warrant was issued on his Ogden residence. When police arrived, the suspect admitted to being the one responsible for the burglary and was subsequently booked into Weber County Jail under the charges of burglary, theft and criminal mischief.
