Staff at Midwestern State University’s student newspaper said approximately 1,500 copies of the weekly paper were stolen after a front-page story featured a fight at a fraternity party that led to the fraternity being placed on alcohol probation.
On Oct. 6, within 30 minutes after the Wichitan was distributed, a custodian at the school’s liberal arts building told the newspaper staff he had found a stack of newspapers in a trash can and refilled the newsstand with 200 new copies, Editor in Chief Camron Rushin said. When those 200 copies were found in trash cans, the staff replaced those copies, and the cycle continued throughout the day. Newspapers were stolen from multiple locations on the university campus, Rushin said.
Rushin said he believes the theft is linked to the story about the fraternity party. “That was the only controversy in the paper,” he said.
In the Oct. 13 issue of the Wichitan the staff offered a $1,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.
The Wichitan estimates the total value of the stolen newspapers was $3,000.
Mike Hagy, chief of university police, said the campus police are handling this case as a theft of property.