Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993 TAG: 9304300039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But Virginia Tech police believe Bernard Stanley Brennan, 47, of St. Petersburg, Fla., has stolen about 200 books from the campus, and possibly is involved in other book thefts from other campuses in Virginia and elsewhere.
Their suspicions were aroused this week after a staff member in Pamplin Hall saw a man coming out of a faculty office. The police were called and Hap Bonham, an associate dean, went to look for the man, said Larry Hincker, a Tech spokesman.
Bonham found his man, but he ran away as the two were headed back to Bonham's office. Police caught up with him a few buildings away and charged him with trespassing. Then they saw books in his car - a BMW - that belonged to two electrical engineering faculty members.
A search of the car also yielded a receipt for a room at a Christiansburg motel. Police then obtained a search warrant for the room and found boxes of college textbooks and other materials that led them to believe the books had been stolen.
Brennan was arraigned in Blacksburg General District Court on Wednesday on 16 larceny charges - eight felonies and eight misdemeanors - and one misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
Bond was set at $50,000 and Brennan remained in Montgomery County Jail Thursday evening.
By Thursday afternoon, 17 people on the Tech campus had identified confiscated books as theirs, Hincker said.
Tech police Capt. Jody Falls said police were aware that books were missing on campus. Police from the University of Virginia and West Virginia University - where book thefts also have occurred - have been notified, authorities said.
UVa police Capt. Bill Morris said Brennan has not been charged with any thefts at UVa. But police are investigating whether any books missing there can be traced to him.
Morris said police have learned that when Brennan was in Charlottesville recently, seven or more boxes of books were shipped from his motel room by Yellow Freight Lines or United Parcel Service.
That's apparently the same way books were sent from Montgomery County.
According to a search warrant on file at the Montgomery County Circuit Court clerk's office, an employee of the Christiansburg motel told Tech police that Brennan was shipping several boxes each day by Yellow Freight.
Authorities said Brennan had been at the motel since April 21.
Several textbooks were found in Brennan's hotel room, along with sheets of paper with university names, a map of the UVa campus and other items, according to the search warrant.
Police also found several parking tickets: one from North Carolina State; one from Raleigh, N.C.; and two from the University of California. They also found a set of keys from the University of Kansas.
In the motel's business office, police seized seven boxes of books that were marked to be shipped to a business in River Grove, Ill.
Authorities have not determined whether it is a legitimate business.
Textbooks also were found in a trash bin at the Christiansburg motel.
Thefts of textbooks from universities are not uncommon, UVa's Morris said.
Once the books are stolen, they apparently are sold elsewhere, Hincker said. Used college textbooks typically are bought back by booksellers at one-third to one-half their original value, Hincker said.
"We're very proud of the fact that our people . . . are the ones that caught" a suspect, Hincker said.
Tech authorities sent electronic computer messages throughout campus asking anyone who is missing textbooks to contact police.
Toby Phillips, Radford University's police director, said he was notified of the Tech thefts but it does not appear Radford was hit by any organized theft effort.
Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth's attorney for Montgomery County, said Brennan's wife testified during a bond hearing Thursday that her husband is a self-employed book broker who buys used textbooks and sells them back to book companies that supply college campuses.
But authorities had not been able to find anyone who could identify Brennan as a legitimate dealer, Schwab said.
by CNB