A man accused of stealing a hat from the USC Bookstore was detained at Wallis Annenberg Hall Monday afternoon.
First-year students Nadia Carlos and Mina Phan spotted the alleged shoplifter when they were eating in TCC around 4:30 p.m. Monday. They noticed he was tripping over bushes and walking around in a “funny” manner.
“Instead of taking the stairs down, he started trying to go on the railing, and [slid] down the railing, which we thought was like, oh he’s, a peculiar guy,” said Phan.
After seeing his odd behavior at TCC, they decided to follow the man into the bookstore, where they saw him go into the food aisle and the upper levels. They noticed him enter the bookstore without a hat and leave with one.
“He was throwing away a tag,” said Carlos. “We never saw him, check out or pay.”
According to the witnesses, once he left the bookstore, he walked into Wallis Annenberg Hall. Shortly after, Department of Public Safety officers arrived on scene. He was taken into custody by DPS officers on the second floor and escorted out of the building. The man’s name hasn’t been made public yet.
DPS’s 60-day crime log shows that since the semester began, more than 10 incidents have been reported at Wallis Annenberg Hall. Five additional incidents occurred at the Annenberg School for Communication. Of the 10 that occurred at Wallis Annenberg Hall, four were trespassing incidents and an additional three involved theft.
Annenberg Media reached out to DPS for a comment and interview. We have not received a response.