Gate is missing his phone and iPod. He better not catch you with them.
For once, the microscope is not on the Georgia football team but rather the faculty and guests. According to UGA police, seven football players were subjected to theft during the school’s Football Faculty Appreciation Day. Jamal Allen, Kenarious Gate, Abry Jones, Jordan Love, Rhett McGowan, Alex Ogletree and Shawn Williams all fell victim. Over $1,300 worth of electronic devices were stolen out of their lockers to include iPhones and iPods.
Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall is home to the football players and it’s about as secure as any building in the state of Georgia. Typically, you need identification access and fingerprinting just to enter the building. However, on Football Faculty Appreciation Day, the school’s security flaws were exposed.
As of this morning, university officials have no suspects and have yet to recover any of the stolen items. Lt. Eric Dellinger had some unsettling words regarding the incident, “it’s not uncommon for thefts to take place in secured buildings during events like this,” Dellinger said. “The lockers they were taken from weren’t locked.”
This begs the obvious questions of why wouldn’t the school continue its high level of security if thefts are not uncommon and why would the players’ lockers be unlocked?
On a side note, according to the official University of Georgia Performance/Merit Increase for Fiscal Year 2011, no merit-based salary increases for faculty and staff were recommended in the FY 2011 state budget.
