Between 8,000 and 10,000 copies of The Chronicle were stolen from campus distribution bins Wednesday morning, Chronicle General Manager Jonathan Angier confirmed.
The Chronicle's distributor first noticed the papers missing from the West Union Building and reported the incident around 8 a.m, Angier said. All suspects were described as white males of college age, Duke University Police Department Maj. Gloria Graham said.
The theft cost The Chronicle $5,000 in advertising revenue and an additional $3,000 in reprinting and redistribution of the papers, Angier said.
Angier said it has not yet been decided whether The Chronicle will press charges.
"It's a financial issue, definitely, and also an issue of The Chronicle's two-pronged mission," said junior Chelsea Allison, editor of The Chronicle and president of Duke Student Publishing Company. "We don't produce The Chronicle only as an exercise in the practice of journalism. We care very much about providing news to the community, about sparking discussion."
By around 10 a.m., The Chronicle's Business Office had received reports of empty newspaper bins in the Allen Building, the School of Law, the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, East Campus and distribution points along Science Drive, Angier said. All distribution bins on West Campus were emptied, but the Duke University Medical Center and smaller distribution points were left untouched.
The distributor was suspicious while placing papers in the West Union bins because she noticed people waiting for her to deliver the papers, prompting her to return to the building after distributing to the Divinity School, Angier said.
"When she came back from the Divinity School, [the papers were] gone," he said.
A delivery assistant witnessed four people taking newspapers off the racks in the Bryan Center, Angier said. When the distributor caught another individual putting copies of The Chronicle in a bag, she confronted him. The perpetrator said he was taking the newspapers for a "papier-mache project," Angier said.
The incident has been categorized as a larceny, though the perpetrators' identities and motives are so far unclear, Graham said.
Angier said he and DUPD were initially reluctant to make the theft a legal matter because copies of the paper are free. But when he recalled the line, "Each individual is entitled to one free copy," in The Chronicle's editorial pages, Angier and DUPD reconsidered their legal options.
"Because it's a serious matter, there must be an appropriate consequence for it," he said. "I don't know if it means prosecution or if they just give us money to recuperate our losses, because they are going to be in trouble with us and with the University."
In 2005, numerous copies of The Chronicle were stolen from distribution bins in objection to a story related to Duke Student Government. The Chronicle did not file a police report at the time.
A year later, members of UNC's Sigma Chi fraternity chapter stole more than 10,000 copies of the Daily Tar Heel to prevent the public from reading a story about the fraternity's hazing violations. Although the incident was reported as larceny, the DTH did not press charges and reached a monetary agreement with the fraternity.
Graham said it is unclear whether Wednesday's incident was a prank, but noted that nothing in The Chronicle Wednesday seemed objectionable.
"I read the Chronicle today and nothing stood out to me that people would care too much as something against them," she said. "So right now we're just taking it one step at a time."
The Chronicle has received tips, however, that the thefts were fraternity-related. A student who asked not to be named said two of her classmates were puzzled when they saw copies of the paper in class Wednesday afternoon.
"One said to the other one, 'They didn't get all of them?' and they both looked kind of confused," she said. "They started looking disappointed, and I realized it must have been their frat that orchestrated it."
Junior Eric Kaufman, president of the Interfraternity Council, could not be reached for comment.
Allison said she wonders whether the individuals were aware of the possible legal ramifications of their prank.
"I do understand-I hope-that [the thieves] probably didn't consider the impact of their actions," Allison said.
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