Jacket Thefts Plague WHRB-Sponsored Party

The theft of several leather jackets spoiled the fun for some at a WHRB-sponsored dance at Quincy House on Saturday.

Mark W. Jacobstein '92 said he went to look for his $200 jacket around midnight at the crowded coat racks but could not find it. He reported the loss to one of the students collecting money at the door, where he bumped into another student with the same problem.

He said that when he filed a report with a Harvard police officer, he met six or seven other people there whose jackets had been stolen. A few were Yale students and a few were upper-classmen, Jacobstein said.

There were two Harvard police officers and four Quincy House tutors at the dance at all times, said Mary Black, assistant senior tutor at Quincy House. The tutors and officers stayed near the entrance most of the evening and occasionally walked through the dining hall, where the dance took place.

Black said the students appeared to enjoy themselves without rowdiness. At 11 p.m., after WHRB members received the first complaint of a missing jacket, they turned the lights on to allow people to look for their coats and left the lights on until the dance ended at 1 a.m.

At 11:30 p.m. WHRB closed the dance to new students to control the size of the crowd. "At that point we were distressed about the jackets," said Black.

She said no alcohol was served at the dance and the "majority of students appreciated that fact."

Jacobstein said he did not believe the officers could have known whether a person leaving the dance in a leather jacket had stolen it. Jacobstein said that when he attends parties from now on, "I probably will not take my jacket off."

Black said future sponsors of large college events may want to set up a coat checking station, but that would be the organizers' responsibility.