GEORGIA — A group of unidentified women were caught on video stealing copies of Georgia Perimeter College’s student paper last Wednesday night.
At 7:25 p.m., a security camera captured the group of four girls walking up to a Collegian newspaper stand on the Clarkston campus. Two of the girls grabbed stacks of the papers, nearly emptying the rack.
David Schick, The Collegian’s editor-in-chief, said that this incident was one of two thefts on the Clarkston campus that day, totaling around 600 stolen copies.
Schick reported the thefts to campus police on Thursday. Georgia Perimeter police, who provided the newspaper with the security recording of the theft, said that they have placed a be-on-the-lookout warning for the women.
It’s not clear why the women stole the papers. Schick said he could not think of any articles in the paper that would have prompted the theft.
The Collegian prints 11,000 copies of its weekly newspaper and distributes the issues across five campuses in the Atlanta metro area, with the entire press run costing $1,420. On the Clarkston campus, 3,000 copies of the paper are distributed.
Schick said that because of a budget crisis at the college, the paper is unable to reprint copies of the paper to replace those that were stolen.
“We’re just going to have to re-shift the papers around,” Schick said.
This is the 19th newspaper theft reported in 2012, more than the previous two years combined. Nine thefts were reported in 2011, and six in 2010.
By Jordan Bradley, SPLC staff writer. Contact Bradley by email or at (703) 807-1904 ext. 124.