Is this normal behavior for frat houses?
 

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/middle...1988133870.xml

Frat houses linked to Halloween heists
Saturday, October 30, 2004
BY TOM HAYDON
Star-Ledger Staff
A Halloween display on the front lawn of the TKE fraternity at Rutgers University in New Brunswick features 13 huge lawn balloons, handmade scarecrows, pumpkins and bales of hay.

The display is the most elaborate on frat row. The only problem: All of the decorations had been reported stolen from a Franklin nursery.




"They were just helping themselves, like there was nothing to it," said Anna Coghan, one of the owners of the Fama Landscaping and Nursery on Route 27, from which the decorations were stolen.

The TKE house was the second fraternity house at Rutgers University where items stolen from Fama were found in the last two days. On Wednesday night, 25-pound pumpkins and handmade scarecrows were stolen from the nursery, and Coghan found them the next day, with the price tags still attached, in front of the Squam fraternity house on College Avenue in New Brunswick.

"I was furious. We expect some theft being in business, but this was just very arrogant," said Coghan, 50, whose 20-year-old son attends the university. "We're a small business, not a Home Depot where you can write it off."
Squam students were given a choice to either return the decorations or be arrested. Coghan said they returned the pumpkins and everything else. Fama was also promised an apology letter from the fraternity.

The TKE members avoided criminal charges by giving Fama $1,300 for the blow-ups, 50 pumpkins and 30 bales of hay.

"It basically wiped away everything. There are no charges," said Franklin Township police officer Amber Sincak.

TKE members, however, could still face charges. South Brunswick police went to the house yesterday and recovered automated Halloween mannequins and figures that been stolen from the front lawn of Carolyn and Thomas Dardani in South Brunswick.

"When the detective called me with the news this morning, I was shocked and then very relieved," Carolyn Dardani said. "I was also happy they found it at a fraternity because it meant it was the work of kids."

Dardani said she heard the thefts were part of members pledging the fraternity.

"You don't steal from people," she said. "There are other ways to pledge a fraternity than stealing."

The figures, which Thomas Dardani made, are used in a popular haunted trail and hay ride held annually in a South Brunswick park that the couple runs with the help of 150 volunteers.

After the theft Wednesday night, Coghan took matter into her hands and started searching around the university.

On Thursday, she saw Fama scarecrows with her family's price tag still on at the Squam fraternity house on College Avenue. She said she peeked in the window of the fraternity house and saw their pumpkins on the kitchen table, and then called Franklin police.

Yesterday, after discovering two more of the blow-ups were stolen overnight, Coghan returned to New Brunswick, found the TKE lawn on Union Street covered with the ornaments, and started screaming at the students.

One man at the house yesterday afternoon identified himself as a TKE member and said the ornaments were assembled on the lawn Thursday night. The man, who declined to give his name, said the fraternity had owned the balloons for years.

When asked why police were at the house, he and other members declined to comment.

South Brunswick police Detective James Ryan said officers are still investigating the case to determine the identity of the people who took the figures from the Dardanis.

University officials said they will be talking with Franklin and South Brunswick police to conduct their own investigation of the fraternities. ***

This is absolutely, to ME, unacceptable, irresponsible, childish behavior from people who, in any other venue, will declare themselves to be adults with adult rights. Courts will mete out proper punishment, maybe..I say, let their parents have at them. If it were MY kid, rest assured his life of crime would be short and his finances even shorter as I'd cut his funds and make sure he paid back two-fold.

How grossly unintelligent do you have to be to steal a large amount of stuff then blatently display it on your front lawn?

hehe like the chick Filet cow that was stolen over here. its like a 10 ft inflatabale cow. its still missing with a $1500 reward. Police also admit who ever blows it up will be extremely stupid since its easy tofind a inflatable 10 ft cow...

I think, in their tiny minds, they figured since the items were stolen from another town, no one would notice??

Well, my biased opinion says yes, it is normal. I have no basis for this however.

Heh. We used to pull stunts like this, but we weren't dumb enough to leave evidence laying around. Jeez.

If people want to stop things like this then they need to punish them, not say, if you return our stuff it'll be ok.

Gotta love the implications with the comment about how it's OK to steal, so long as it's not from me or a small business.

"Is this normal behavior for frat houses?" That's an asinine question, do I really need to explain why?

If something seems wrong with society, take a good look at yourself first.

Its normal for TKE, they seem to have a lot of problems on a lot of campuses.

Is it normal for frats, hell no, at least not when I was in one in the early 90's.

I would say it's probably normal for drunkard college kids. So, under that criteria, it would be normal for frats.

It depends on the fraternity of course, but as Ustwo said, that's somewhat typical TKE behaviour - they aren't one of the more highbrow fraternities.

I can't believe there aren't going to be criminal charges, simply because it was a "prank" and part of some fraternity event.

Stealing is stealing. Period. If you get pickpocketed by some desperate 20 year old thug on a streetcorner, do you think the charges should be dropped? So what makes these kids different? Anyone to hazard a guess?

What happened to borrowing stuff and then leaving a ransom note, a trail of clues, geeze, beer does strange things to the collegiate mind!

The average frat? Ehhh, maybe. Is this representative of almost all frats though, or atleast the principals that they are supposed to uphold? No. I can only respond in terms of my frat, since its the only one that I would have ever joined, and I can definetly say that we would find a plan like this retarded. We love pranks, especially if they are well thought out, but this is nothing but petty theft. Neither clever, nor funny. Not our style at all. Unfortunetly, a lot of frats today (widely varying from school to school and chapter to chapter) have dropped any pretense of being anything but a social club for meatheads instead of a organization to better themselves and their community.

This is all from the perspective of a member of Delta Upsilon however, an anti-secret fraternity founded in direct opposition of the frats of the day and not too impressed with most around now.

***I************

This doesn't suprise me, TKE here was busted for for similar stuff. They now no longer exist, because of all the crap they pulled. Not to sound stereotypical, but what they stand for poorly represents the fraternity model. Pranks are supposed to be funny, small, and non-destructive; this crossed the line...

Oh and they may get off the criminal charges, but I bet their national headquarters is going to be fucking pissed. They mentioned it was the work of pledges which means hazing which is a violation of rules in every fraternity. TKE here was kicked off for hazing, so if they don't play their cards right, I have a feeling someone could lose their charter. And losing your charter is a harsher punishment, because it will take 5+ years to rebuild a house, versus 100 hrs of community service. I would know our house just got our charter back last spring and are still rebuilding.

Nah this isn't normal for most of the fraternities I know, although a couple kids on one on our campus got busted trying to steal pumpkins a few days back. The more usual theft by fraternities is the same as by general college kids, orange road cones or street signs with a friend's name on them, etc.

And speaking as a current member in a fraternity, despite our best efforts we have a large amount of stuff stollen from us. Hell, three years ago our house had three outdoor style couches on our covered, front porch. One by one they've all been stolen. Tons of composite pictures off the walls, which still disappear with suprising regularity, and in general stuff. Hell, I bought a new outdoor hose for the house and in two days it was gone. And any TVs and whatnot have to be all but bolted down if you want them to last.

Its pretty amazing how brazen some people get trying to steal from frats, even in broad daylight.

But yeah, not to threadjack, so back to this thread, no, doing anything like that is not normal.

just stupid.

We had a problem with theft and vandalism between some fraternities (for example: someone stole a mounted buffalo head from a frat house), but I don't believe they participate in crime--except for alcohol-related stuff.

..my best friends brain has been warped by a frat..yes this is normal. so far hes stolen garbage cans, kiddie pools..and a bunch of other stuff..its pledging..its what they make the pledges do because they cant hurt them with paddles anymore..its the new hazing