Museum alarm may not have sounded during $5,000 theft

A silent alarm may not have been triggered during the theft last week of 27 artifacts worth around $5,000 from the University Museum, University Police said last week. University Police Detective Supervisor Mike Carroll said he does not have enough information to determine whether or not the alarm, which is connected to each door of the museum and to several display cases, went off during the theft. But police said after the crime last week that a police officer on duty did not know the crime was occurring and that the theft of the African artifacts was not discovered until the following morning by a museum staff member. Carroll also said that the present security system at the museum works in two shifts. During the day, hired guards patrol the University Museum. After 4:30 p.m., however, those guards go home and one University Police officer is then assigned to "monitor the alarm systems." "In the evening and at night, one officer monitors the [museum's] alarm system and any door activity, and periodically makes rounds inside the museum," he said. University Police Sergeant Larry Salotti, said last night that he is familiar with the current alarm system. He said that each door has a "magnetic lock wired to a silent alarm." Salotti added that the officer assigned to the building sits at a "console" where he can monitor the alarm system and be alerted to any activity inside the museum. He said that museum staff members carry magnetically coded cards that allow them access to certain rooms inside the museum. Salotti said he thinks hiring private security guards may not be the best way to monitor the museum at night. He said the museum did have its own guards when the $250,000 crystal ball was stolen in 1988. He added that there has been some speculation since then that during the theft of the crystal ball, a silent alarm was triggered, but that a guard may have silenced it. "That's all completely conjecture," Salotti said. "But if you pay [guards] minimum wage, you are going to get minimum wage protection." A security supervisor at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who wished to remain anonymous, said last week that museums need to take special care in making sure employees do not have "unlimited" access to the keys and alarm system. "I don't know how secure [the University Museum's] key system is, but if [the thief] is one you employ, they could have keys and know the alarm system," he said. He added that museum supervisors need to ask who has the keys and how much freedom they have. The supervisor said the Philadelphia Museum of Art is "probably one of the best protected buildings in Philadelphia" because they have taken every precaution, "electrical and otherwise." The security supervisor said, however, that no security system is fool-proof. "You do your damndest, but people can still outsmart you," he said.