It was the perfect diversion.
According to Director of Security Jack Sheehan, just after midnight on Nov. 2, three security officers on duty were responding to a call from Gallup, where a group of young men had been yelling and banging on a window.
Meanwhile, between six and nine people were busy removing the gold letters from Eastern’s main entrance sign.
They almost got away with it.
According to a Radnor Police report, senior Frank Cooney and several other Eastern students were leaving campus in Cooney’s car when they saw the theft in progress. They stopped the car and dialed Security.
Frightened by the stopped car, several of the thieves ran across Eagle Road onto Cabrini’s campus. The rest hid behind the sign before they too ran over to Cabrini, according to Sheehan.
Sheehan said Eastern and Cabrini Security and the Radnor police searched Cabrini’s campus but did not find the responsible parties.
Ten letters were missing and several lights were broken.
The next morning at 5:30, red graffiti was discovered on the sign at Cabrini’s Eagle Road entrance. According to Sheehan, what appeared to be the same paint was used on 16 cars on the Cabrini campus.
He said it was also used to outline a caricature of male genitalia on both a bridge in Fenimore Park and the bridge between the athletic fields and the center of Eastern’s campus.
Security is investigating the matter.
As of Nov. 13, three of the stolen letters have been recovered, according to Sheehan. The letters were found lying in open areas on Cabrini’s campus and were returned by Cabrini Security.