Lampoon Cleared in Theft at Indy

Staffers of The Harvard Independent reported the theft of a $1,500 computer from their offices to the police yesterday after finding evidence of forced entry, but they say the Harvard Lampoon is no longer a suspect in the theft.

F. Timothy Santry '97, president of the Independent, discovered a broken window frame at the publication's offices in the basement of Canaday Hall on Sunday night, and subsequently filed a report of the theft.

The evidence of a break-in cast doubt on the suspicion of a Lampoon prank.

The Lampoon was suspected in the theft because they circulated a parody version of the Independent on Thursday. However, the Poonsters had keys that they used to gain access to the Independent office.

Independent staffers discovered the missing computer last Thursday, but Santry said he thought the computer was stolen during spring break.

Police Sergeant Kathleen Stanford said that the Lampoon is not considered a suspect in the investigation, although the Lampoon members' presence in the Independent offices were noted in the report.

"Unless we get more information, I'm going to go at this as a standard breaking and entering and not a prank," Stanford said.

Members of the Lampoon admit to legally entering the Canaday A basement in order to produce the parody of the Independent. Lampoon members who were also on the Independent staff supplied the keys.

"I did tell [the police] that the Lampoon had been here, which they freely admitted--well actually we had to beat it out of them--but I believe the Lampoon now that they didn't steal the computer," Santry said.

Lampoon members have maintained that they had "nothing to do with the missing computer," which included $1,000 of unduplicated fonts.

"It was an unhappy collusion of circumstances," said Lampoon Ibis David J. Eilenberg '97. "We're not angry at the Indy, but glad that F. T. Santry has given up any suspicion of us."

Santry says he does not expect to recover the computer, a fear Stanford called a "reasonable assumption."