Police investigate magazine theft

University Police are investigating the alleged thefts of about 300 copies of The Red and Blue from Chats this week. The Red and Blue is a student-run magazine which often publishes conservative views at odds with the campus' generally liberal climate. The magazine temporarily lost its Student Activities Council funding in 1995 because of its alleged political slant. Wharton and Engineering junior Michael Bressler, the magazine's managing editor, and College junior Jeremy Katz said about 250 copies of the magazine were stolen from the dining hangout in Class of 1920 Dining Commons at 38th Street and Locust Walk at about 1:00 a.m Wednesday. In addition, Bressler said about half of the 100 to 150 issues he put in the same location Wednesday night to replace the stolen issues were also taken. After the second incident, Bressler said he decided to report the alleged thefts to the police. University Police Det. John Peterson said yesterday that the police were looking into the alleged thefts. He declined to comment further. A pile of the magazines was on a desk near the entrance to Chats, according to Katz. He said he was talking to Bressler when "a bunch of kids walked into Chats and then left. We didn't think anything of it. When we looked over at the desk, every one [of the magazines] was gone." A security guard sitting at the desk told Bressler that "if we had a problem, we should go call the Penn Police," according to Katz. The following night, Bressler said he placed between 100 and 150 issues in the same spot from where the copies had been stolen. He said he watched the magazines, but when he turned away briefly and looked back, half of them had disappeared. "You can tell that many people don't take the magazines to read in that short period of time," Bressler said. Both Bressler and Katz are members of the Undergraduate Assembly. If the magazines were indeed stolen, it would not be the first time issues of a campus publication disappeared. On April 15, 1993, The Daily Pennsylvanian's nearly entire press run of 14,000 copies was stolen from distribution sites around campus by a group calling itself the "Black Community" to protest an allegedly racist columnist.

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