Freshmen Capture Burglar Suspect; University Police Fail to Detain Him

Christopher Dahl '68 and John Clement '68 last Saturday night captured a Cambridge youth suspected of stealing $11 from Dahl's Massachusetts Hall room.

The youth, around 18 years old, had visited the room earlier in the day and was admitted by Dahl who knew the youth as a friend of his former roommate, who is no longer with the University. Shortly after the Cambridge boy had left, Dahl realized that the money was missing.

William Burriss Young '55, Massachusetts Hall proctor, was told of the incident immediately and connected this robbery with the loss of a camera from a freshman room and the recent appearance of prowlers in the West Yard. They told the University Police but had little hope for the return of the money.

Dahl's visitor, however, returned late Sunday night. This time Dahl and his neighbor, Clement, who was studying in his room, took the youth to Young.

The youth denied any knowledge of the crimes, although at one point he offered to pay Dahl the money he had lost.

Young phoned the University police who talked briefly with the boy and then let him leave with the warning not to return to Harvard buildings. Dahl said the boy was carrying a knife when he made his first visit in the afternoon. The police failed to search him.

The Cambridge Police, which always receives information concerning incidents involving Cambridge youths on Harvard grounds, said they had not been given any information by the University Police.

In answer to this charge, University police Chief Robert Tonis said he had no comment. Sargent Nun, Criminal investigator at Harvard, said "the case is not my concern."