Professor’s purse purloined
A Cal State Long Beach employee reported to the University Police Department that her wallet was stolen from her purse on Saturday. The employee, an executive director in the Human Services and Design building, made the report after learning of an unauthorized financial transaction at McDonald’s made by someone else with her credit cards two days prior, indicating that the theft took place earlier in the week. Other than the wallet, the CSULB employee didn’t report any missing property.
Smartphone stolen during study time at library
A female student reported to the UPD that her iPhone 6 was stolen in the CSULB library on Thursday evening. She had left her phone next to her backpack on a table while she filled up her water bottle at a drinking fountain. After filling the water bottle, she returned to where she left her belongings only to discover the phone was missing in an “apparent crime of opportunity.”
“These things tend to happen very quick,” said Dave Wagner, the evidence controller for the UPD. “You know people are there [at the library] for a specific purpose, they’re busy. And [thieves] are going to take advantage of that brief moment. It takes very little time to walk up, take something and just walk away.”
Foundation Building caught smoking
A fire was reported to UPD Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Foundation Building. The building had large amounts of smoke coming out of it and firefighters were called to the scene. They found that it was not a fire, but that water had gotten into a diesel generator that started smoking, Lt. Richard Goodwin of the UPD said.
Grand theft auto on Palo Verde
A 1985 Toyota pickup truck was stolen from a campus-side parking space on Palo Verde Avenue April 25. The report of the grand theft auto came in to the UPD just before 9 p.m. but the owner of the vehicle stated that he had parked the pickup there far earlier in the morning, at around 8 a.m.
The large window of time in which the theft occurred would make narrowing down suspects difficult, Wagner said.
Bag taken at dining hall
A female student reported to the UPD that her bag was stolen from the Parkside dining hall on the morning of April 25. The student placed her bag, which contained clothing and jewelry in the bag storage area of the dining hall, only to return and discover her belongings missing.