SOUTH CAROLINA — A man was caught on tape stealing750 copies of the Feb. 20 issue of the University of South Carolinastudent newspaper and dumping them into two trash cans.
The papers were stolen from racks just outside the studentgovernment office in USC’s student union, and the theft was caughton the union’s security camera videotape. The director of thestudent union has the tape, but will not yet allow thenewspaper editors to view it.
Brock Vergakis, editor of The Gamecock, said the uniondirector is waiting until he has clearance from the university’slegal department before he allows anyone else to see the tape.
Regardless of what is shown on the tape, Vergakis said TheGamecock will not press charges against the person responsiblefor the theft.
"We decided not to do anything about it [in terms of legalaction] because we were able to recover about 80 percent of [thepapers]." Vergakis said, "we just want him to admitit’s stupid."
Editors believe the papers were stolen because it chose torun endorsements for student government candidates in that issue.
The Gamecock, which publishes three times a week, hasa press run of 14,000.