Friday morning upon coming into work, AMS staff discovered that the Student Life Centre (SLC) in the JDUC had been broken into overnight and a pair of master keys — with access to the whole building — were stolen.
According to AMS President Tyler Lively, the incident occurred around midnight on Thursday and was reported to the University, as the owners of the building, and campus security immediately after it was discovered.
According to him, the perpetrator allegedly broke through the glass pane of one of the doors to the SLC office.
“The person would have put their hand through, open it, and within the office they took a set of master keys for the building,” Lively said. “We started working on a plan, given that with these master keys they effectively have access to every room in the building.”
Kingston Police were also notified of the theft, a report was filed, and the AMS’ insurance company was contacted to inquire about coverage for replacement locks. “We’re not sure [how much it will cost] until we work with PPS to get a complete estimate. It is costly, but we just can’t say how much at this time,” Lively said.
Following these steps, the AMS sent a message to affiliate student groups and services informing them of the incident and advising all to take the proper precautions in protecting valuable items.
“We’re going to be ensuring that everyone is arming the different services and offices at night, and we’ve worked with campus security to arrange 24/7 security for the building. There’ll be security in the building to ensure that, if someone is going around attempting to break into spaces, they will be caught,” Lively said.
AMS staff and students have been advised not to leave any valuables in their offices at night for the time being. A discomforting thought for Lively is the idea that the perpetrator knew what they were looking for.
“It’s pretty clear to us that they were after these master keys. As to what they want to do with them, I wouldn’t want to speculate,” he said. The keys had been kept in the SLC office.
“They’re usually kept in a cupboard in the office, so whoever it was that broke in clearly knew where these keys were located,” he said. “I mean, they’re not just left out in plain sight.”
Lively said that proper precautions had been taken in the interim period, and that the AMS had informed the University that replacing the locks was a top priority.
Tags
AMS, break in, crime, SLC, Student life centre
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