MARYLAND — About 1,000 of the 1,300 copies of WashingtonCollege’s weekly student paper, The Elm, were stolen Friday morning.
Although staffers and school officials do not yet know who stole thepapers, Elm Editor in Chief Katherine Honold said she suspects the paperswere stolen because of an article that ran in Friday’s issue. The article namedseveral Washington College students detained by police during a November druginvestigation. The Elm did publish the article online.
Candy Tyrell, an officer with the school’s Department of Public Safety,spoke to a student who might have seen someone take the papers, but the witnesscould not give a basic physical description.
“We continue to look for them and ask around,” Tyrell said.
The papers were stolen from the school’s Casey Academic Center between 8:30and 11:30 a.m., where they usually are picked up for delivery by one of TheElm‘s distribution managers, Honold said.
Honold estimates the stolen papers were worth more than $1,600, based onstaff salaries and production costs.
The Elm will run an article in this Friday’s issue about the theft.
Maryland in 1994 passed the first law specifically criminalizing the theftof free newspapers. The misdemeanor offense carries a possible fine of up to$500 and a possible jail sentence of up to 60 days.