Brent Lowe
Staff Reporter
Sometime between last Monday, April 20, and last Tuesday, April 21, a vandal (or vandals) stole the head from a wooden dinosaur skeleton out of Lewis Hall, according to Office Manager Carole Klapper. Klapper works in the office right across from the deheaded dino.
It is unknown why the head was stolen, but the doors were left open after office hours for students to use the lab equipment, so it is likely someone just walked in and took it.
“It is sorta disappointing,” says Freshman Tom Cartaxo. “It’s completely meaningless.”
“I am saddened that it happened,” says Michael Webster, Director of Campus Safety. When asked what was being done about the missing head, Webster replied that they “have taken an initial report and will follow up on leads as they come in.”
But is this stolen head going to be mourned by all, or is it seen as more of a nuisance?
“It’s a dumb prank,” says Robert Cox, the theater arts technical director, who built the dinosaur as a theater prop for a production called Pterodactyl that played for about four days. When the production was over the theater folks decided to give to the Biology Department rather than throw it away or break it down for use in something else.
“It took me about four days to build total,” Cox says.
The dinosaur has been in Lewis for about one year, Cox explains. That creation is one of many props and theater sets that Cox has created.
There were plans by some to have the beheaded reptile taken to the dump, but Professor Brett McMillan, a visiting Biology instructor, suggested posting a sign asking the culprits to steal the rest to save folks the trouble.
The fate of the dinosaur was not available at press time.