During the final days of Welcome Week at Winona State University, Winona State Security was notified of a theft occurring on the second floor of Minne Hall, after reports of missing items from the office began to surface on Friday, Aug. 24.

While the initial time and date of the theft remain unclear, campus security informed students and faculty at Winona State, by email, that the incident happened between July 1 and Aug. 24 of this year.

Brandon Sykes, one of the student supervisors within the security department, explained how more information on the theft could not be further disclosed.

The fallout at Minné Hall is not Winona State first rodeo in dealing with theft on campus, as Sykes explained security’s main process in resolving a theft situation.

“Usually it all depends on the students since students will come up to us first,” Sykes said. “It’s not up to us student supervisors. We will pass information on to our bosses who will go through cameras and find responsible people to handle the situation further.”

After a report is given to either a student security guard or a student supervisor, the information must be passed on to the bosses of security.

“Both of our bosses are ex-officers and they send the information we gather up to the cops,” Sykes said.

Even though there is an emphasis placed on the process of resolving a theft on campus, the preparation in training employees for a theft situation does not happen quite often.

“We don’t deal with thefts individually very much,” Sykes said. “If a theft is reported to a security guard, they must write down the report, get the student’s information, make sure all the information is correct and then pass the information on to people more qualified.”

Aside from the theft that occurred in Minné Hall, there have been no other cases of theft reported at Winona State according to Sykes.

“I personally have not received any calls about theft recently,” Sykes said.

With the investigation still underway in uncovering the culprit’s identity and retrieving the stolen items from Minné Hall, the security department made sure to ease the concerns of the Winona community by providing an email with a set of safety tips attached.

The safety tips advised residents of Winona and Winona State students to lock their doors after leaving home, report missing keys and notify police or security personnel of suspicious behavior in a residential area.