ON TUESDAY, NOV. 6, junior Cheng Luo faithfully placed his backpack in front of his first-floor locker, as he always did, and left to run fitness in PE. Fifty minutes later when he returned, sweaty from a good workout, he discovered that his backpack was no longer in front of locker 130.

“At first I thought it was like a joke or something, but then I didn’t get it back,” said Luo after looking for his backpack and not being able to find it. The backpack contained all of Luo’s books, his wallet, his ID, and his cellphone.

At Uni, where notebooks are flying out of lockers and chemistry and calculus books adorn the hallways, it should be no surprise that sometimes things get misplaced amid the mess and chaos of the school.

“It is the nature of students to lose things in this school, and knowing Uni I thought he might have misplaced it," said Assistant Director Sue Kovacs. "So together we looked for it hall by hall. We didn't find it the first day or the second day.”

After several unsuccessful searches, evidence turned up two days later that perhaps the backpack had not just been lost in the school but that it had been stolen.

“My cellphone was in there, so I asked my dad to check [the phone records] online,” said Luo. “So he went online, and he saw that there were some calls being placed, mostly to one number, but there were two to Chicago.”

The next day, Friday, Nov. 9, Luo showed Kovacs the phone records, and they decided that the U of I police should be involved in the search since it was clear that this was probably somebody from outside Uni.

“The cops asked me what was in my backpack and what the value of each thing was,” said Luo. “They told me they would try and track down the numbers and see what they could find.”

With the investigation in the hands of the police, the consequences for the offender may be more severe than just a theft within Uni.

“When they find the student or the outsider, the state's attorney will prosecute them,” said Kovacs.

As with all stories, a twist in the plot occured. For Luo, his came on Monday of this week, parent-teacher conference day.

“One of the people who works in DCL [Digital Computer Lab] found some of the stuff in my backpack, like my ID, so they gave it to [Uni secretary] Barb Aschenbrenner, who put it in my locker, and then my dad found it there,” explained Luo. “What they found was like everything in my backpack except for my wallet, my cellphone, and the backpack itself, which was kind of odd.”

The library on the second floor is open to all students on campus, and thus the possibility of someone from outside of Uni stealing something is increased.

“I don't know it it's a [Uni] student or someone else; if it's a student they will be disciplined,” said Kovacs. “If it's someone else, then it worries me that someone can just walk in the door and see a nicely packaged backpack and think that it's OK to just walk away with it.”

The situation now is about ensuring that such thefts do not occur again. For a while, the main doors on the Mathews Avenue entrance were locked. This, however, is not a long-term solution, and other methods are being sought.

In addition, the administration is looking at the general safety of the school as it updates Uni's code red procedure, and this could result in new security features.

“The U of I has been talking about replacing the current doors with doors that are sensitive to a new type of ID card,” explained Kovacs. “As the ID card gets close to the door[s] they will automatically open for you. They are so sensitive that you can keep the card in your purse or backpack and still activate the doors.”

In the meantime, it is important for students to realize that the simple act of placing their backpacks or other valuables inside their lockers is often enough to prevent thefts.

“Kids need to know that if they have something costly or special that they should keep those things in their locker,” said Kovacs. “We've got college students coming into the library, and it looks a lot less suspicious if they just pick up a backpack lying around and put it on their shoulder than if they try opening a locker.”

Unfortunately, until students learn to take responsibility for their own things, thefts will remain an issue at Uni.

“Students have known that thefts from outsiders are a possibility since day one and that they should keep their stuff in their locker,” explained Kovacs. “Do they? Ninety percent don't do this, and it's a problem.”