Students catch burglars in act

Kappa Sig brothers help stop theft Wharton senior Tim Hoover and College senior Chris Roberts weren't out to catch a thief early yesterday morning. But as the two Kappa Sigma brothers made their way home from Smokey Joe's, they found themselves doing just that. Hoover, Roberts and two fellow fraternity brothers lent University Police a hand – literally – in helping to foil a burglary at the McNeil Building. By the time it was over, police had recovered the stolen computer equipment and nabbed one of two suspects in the burglary. Hoover and Roberts were on their way home when they bumped into Wharton sophomores Dan Galanter and Eric Tiltman, who told them they had seen boxes piled up in front of an open window of the McNeil Building on Locust Walk. "I was coming back from WaWa, and I saw [a] suspicious lady loading something into the box from the window in the area between our [Kappa Sig] house and McNeil," Galanter said. When the woman noticed that the students had spotted her, she started to walk away from the building. But she wasn't gone long. "We went to the benches [across from McNeil] to watch, and she kept coming back and looking to see if we were watching ... when I saw Tim and Chris she had ducked down in a basement window," Galanter said. All four agreed they should take some action. They waited for the woman to walk away, then Roberts and Hoover took the boxes into the Kappa Sig house. Inside the boxes, the brothers found an IBM printer, keyboard and other computer equipment, according to University Police. Hoover said everything happened in a flash. After the students brought the boxes inside, they said, they saw a "suspicious-looking guy" watching McNeil from a bench on Locust Walk. Roberts then called University Police to report a burglary in progress. Meanwhile, Hoover left the house to follow the woman. While he was looking for the woman, Hoover saw the "suspicious-looking man" walk toward the building to see if the boxes were still there. Hoover spotted the woman by the Book Store and used a blue light phone to call the police. The police never caught her. But they did catch the man, Kenneth Gilbert of 50th and Chestnut streets. He was arrested at about 1:58 a.m. and charged with burglary. "We were on the porch of the house, [and] three or four cars started coming down, and the police caught him in front of the Book Store," Galanter said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.