Early morning March 1, Longwith Radio, Television and Film Building was broken into. Seven doors were pried open. The offices of Donnie Meals, music business program coordinator; Markene Bennett, radio-TV-broadcasting program coordinator; Joel Knocke, communication design program coordinator; and academic unit assistant Judy Kabo were burgled. Meals confirmed a college-issued Macbook and cash stolen, and Kabo confirmed a purchasing card stolen. Photo by James Dusek
Cash, credit card and laptop were stolen.
By James Dusek
jdusek3@student.alamo.edu
Longwith Radio, Television and Film Building was broken into late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
Housekeeping reported the incident to the police between 6 and 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Though doors, cabinets and a lockbox were pried open, the majority of the building’s valuable equipment and studios remained untouched.
Seven doors on the building’s first floor were opened. Small marks on the corners of the doors suggest a flat-head screwdriver was used to open them, Donnie Meals, music business program coordinator, said.
The offices of Meals; Markene Bennett, radio-TV-broadcasting program coordinator; Joel Knocke, communication design program coordinator; and Judy Kabo, academic unit assistant, were burgled.
Meals confirmed a college-issued MacBook and $80 of his personal cash from an envelope in his desk had been stolen.
Kabo reported a missing purchasing card, a credit card issued by the district for department-related purchases.
A lockbox in Kabo’s office was pried open, but she could not confirm if anything inside was missing.
Kabo said her door, desk drawer, cabinet and the lockbox were opened.
The burglar or burglars pried open two doors to access the hallway containing the disturbed offices.
In doing so, they bypassed the equipment room and two other offices.
“It’s their path that I find surprising,” Meals said.
The equipment room contains audio and video equipment worth thousands, Meals said.
“Very odd, to just break into offices,” John Onderdonk, radio-TV-broadcasting professor and KSYM faculty adviser, said to Meals. “We’ve got a lot of equipment around here and they didn’t even take the gear out of your (office).”
James “Hot Mustard” Velten, academic program coordinator and program director at KSYM, was on the air when police arrived and was unaware of the break-in.
He said he arrived at 6 a.m., and around 6:30 or 6:40 a.m., district police arrived after being called by housekeeping.
As of Wednesday morning, police and KSYM had not yet been able to confirm whether there is security video of the incident. Police were also unable to disclose any time frame for when the break-in occurred. Meals said classes were to continue as scheduled.
Longwith is at Courtland Place and Main Avenue at the northeastern corner of this campus.
