Jordan Hits Moors Crime; Police Offer Aid on Case

City police yesterday frowned upon a reported plan of President Jordan's to crack a Moors Hall crime wave, and asked to handle the case themselves.

Jordan called a "very closed meeting" of Moors residents last night, after the Hall had been plagued for several months with thefts of money, clothes, shoes, and jewelry.

Although no one would give any figures, several girls told the CRIMSON that there has been "a tremendous amount of thievery." Radcliffe officials think it is an inside job, it was reported.

At the 15-minute mass meeting, it was learned, Jordan told students to write down the serial numbers of their bills each night; when any money was stolen, they should report it to the administration. According to one girl, "he talked to us straight from the shoulder."

Ready Has Doubts

Captain Patrick J. Ready, chief of Cambridge detectives, said last night that Radcliffe still hasn't called in police, and expressed heavy doubts that the Jordan plan, as reported, would work.

Ready pointed out that merchants never check the numbers on bills they receive. "We have our own ways of solving a case like this," he said, "but of course we don't tell people about them."

"If this (thievery) has gotten to be a regular thing, it would be good for Mr. Jordan not to tell us. If he notifies us, we may be able to help him."

Radcliffe, with no police of its own, is in the bailiwick of the Cambridge force. But girls usually report crimes to their House mothers rather than to the city.

Jordan declined to explain last night how he hoped the serial-number plan would work. "That was a closed meeting," the president said. "I have no comment to make."