Cameras lead to arrests in campus thefts
URBANA — University of Illinois police believe they may have solved as many as a dozen thefts from the Campus Recreation Center East on campus with the arrests of two UI students.
Lt. Roy Acree said surveillance cameras at both CRCE and the dormitory where Steven Li, 19, and Jacky Huang, 18, lived helped police find them.
Li and Huang, who listed the same address at 901 College Court, U, the Florida Avenue Residence halls, were charged Monday with a single count of burglary alleging that on Sept. 26 they entered the Target store in Champaign intending to use an Urbana man's stolen credit card to buy merchandise.
"These two were going into CRCE and stealing personal items, wallets and credit cards that were either in unlocked lockers or laying on the floor on the basketball courts. We were able to identify them by cameras at CRCE and in the housing unit where they lived," he said.
Police matched times that they were seen in CRCE with times when they returning to their dormitory to help them build their cases against the pair, Acree said.
Acree said police got search warrants for two dorm rooms in Oglesby and Trelease halls, which they served Friday morning. In those rooms they found credit cards, iPods, an iPad and other small items that had been stolen from CRCE. They also found new items that had been purchased with the stolen credit cards, including iPads, iPods, and headphones.
Acree said Li and Huang were not present when the searches were done but were found later Friday and arrested.
They are due back in court Nov. 8. If convicted of the felony charge, they face penalties ranging from probation to three to seven years.
Acree said people who bring wallets to the ARC and CRCE need to lock them up or not leave them on the side of playing courts.
"The gyms are one of the highest rate of theft areas on campus," he said.
He also said the camera system has been extremely helpful to police in trying to solve these kinds of crimes.
"These cameras are located in areas for public use only. They are not in locker rooms where we'd take a chance of taping something inappropriate," he said.
sadly there seems to be an upswing in crimes being committed by the asian american community at the university of illinois. these crimes seem to have become more common. i notice when walking around the uofi that there are what appear to be quite a few asian gangs congregating across the campus, usually nar the illini union. i don't want to generalize but i think the community needs to take action and keep a closer eye on what these folk may be up to.
How are you so certain these are "gangs"? Students hanging out together seems to be a pretty frequent event on campus. But because you read a couple stories about Asians committing crimes, they MUST be gang members because these few stories mean all of the Asians are probably criminals now. God forbid a group of students belonging to an ethnic group that you don't stereotype as being criminals commits a few crimes. They must all be bad now! I'm willing to bet if you had to post your real name and location, like a letter to the editor, you wouldn't have posted this. I really hope you are pretending to act this way and simply want to see people get all riled up.
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