By Cassidy Grom | Echo
Two freshman roommates are lost and found scavengers. They have taken two pairs of jeans, a TV stand, a DVD disc drive, several T-shirts, a pair of boots and a DVD from various lost and found bins around campus.
The pair has a system for lost and found shopping. If they find an item they like, they wait a few weeks or even months, then take it if it is still there. Typically, they do not feel guilty about their actions.
"If someone cares enough (about their lost item) they will find it in a week and a half," one of the roommates said.
On Taylor's campus the lines between abandoned and lost property can be blurry. Consider the ironing boards in English: they are the place where students can leave tasty treats for their wing to enjoy or a T-shirt they no longer want, but they are also the place where the housekeepers put lost and found items.
Housekeepers aren't the only staff members watching over misplaced items. Generally, administrative assistants trust students who claim to be the owner of the lost objects. However, they are learning to be more careful with expensive items.
"One time someone turned in a laptop," said Lisa Royal, an administrative assistant in the Music Department. "While we were trying to find out whose it was, someone stole it off my desk and put it in a piano bench."
Eventually a maintenance staff member found the laptop and was able to return it to the rightful owner.
Administrative assistants work hard to return items of value. But currently there is no written policy on how long an item must be in a department's or residence hall's lost and found before it is given to the campus police office. Some departments turn in items after the semester- some after the academic year.
A few weeks after the spring semester ends, the police office donates unclaimed items to local charities.
For scavengers like the freshman roommates, lost and found bins that are more guarded make them feel uneasy.
"The KSAC has an amazing (selection)," one of the roommates said. "But you have to go back and talk to the front desk people and they pull (the bin) out. So you feel awkward taking things that aren't yours."
Last month, a student took a "Fort Wayne Female Bible College" sweatshirt from Rupp office's lost and found. Although the owner never asked for it back, several men from Broho approached the student concerning it.
According to Indiana property law, she should have returned the sweatshirt. There are no "finders-keepers" laws in Indiana, said attorney Rebecca Loeffler of the Kiley, Harker and Certain firm in Marion.
"All found property, recovered property and cleared stolen property should be released to its owner upon supplying proof of ownership," Loeffler said.
But Jeff Wallace, Taylor chief of police, takes it a step further.
"Don't confuse the law with community," Wallace said. "We are all supposed to live in a community here, which means we all have to look out for our brothers and sisters and their best interests."
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Editor's Note: The original version of this story includes the names of the "freshmen roommates." Their names were omitted in the online version for privacy reasons.
