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Stealing Items...
So do you guys, being part of the Greek Community, think it is ok to steal stuff from other Greek houses?
Our sorority house is right across the street from the Phi Sigma Kappa house. Well two nights ago someone decided it would be funny to climb onto their roof and steal their giant wood letters. Don't ask me how they didn't notice...but they didn't. Now they are all pissed off about it. They have asked us over and over again if we saw anything. But we didn't. Now they keep saying that if they figure out who stole the letters from them they are going to kill them. What do you think is too far? Do you think it is right to steal stuff from other Greeks in fun, or should it not be done at all? I am just curious on what everyone thinks. |
In days of old this may have been considered a prank or a 'spirit mission', as long as the items in question taken were returned undamaged within a certain time 'window'. In this day and age, it would be considered vandalism and burglary, among other things, if you get caught.
I would NOT condone breaking into a house to capture a rival house's charter, composites or - egad - ritual equipment (yes, it's been known to happen). Unfortunately, things get taken too far. |
Kappa Kappa Gamma at Iowa State had their sign in their front yard slowly disappear: the brass greek letters disappeared on each side of the sign at the rate of 1 a week. So the girls had their letters painted on each side.
Right before Thanksgiving break the whole sign disappeared.There's just a frame and base where the sign was. I find it very disrespectful. It used to be a prank to steal letters, composites, etc- but in the past it was done in a gentler fashion and organizations had their items returned. Now- the sorority has to pay to have a new sign put up as they have no clue where it went or anything. I have told the girls I know in KKG that when they design a new sign for their yard that I have suggestions so that they wont have similar problems in the future. |
It's nothing like having a house sign stolen, but we usually get our recruitment posters and signs stolen.
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I think it is completely disrespectful to steal, take down, destroy, etc. ANYTHING that belongs to another GLO. We aren't allowed to have houses on my campus, but it is still disheartening to have posters ripped down or other items stolen. I don't know why anyone would condone behavior like that.
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Down in Rio we don't have houses but we do oddly get picnic benches we can decorate to show our organization. Well my Archon boys (AXN) had an awsome and I mean awsome looking table....no offense to my gals but compaired to ours and some of the other greek tables it was awsome. Anyways someone(s) took their table and by the time I graduated in '03 it still never showed up. Granted we only had them for about a year, but they had it when I became an Archon Lil Sis in Fall '02.
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In my opinion, it's not okay. We recently had our 2002-2003 composite stolen by a fraternity here. We haven't gotten it back. We've never stolen from them before.
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Re: Stealing Items...
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A few of my sisters who live in the house have gone on little raiding missions to Pi Kapp.. mostly stealing dumb stuff like remote controls to the TV or toilet paper or the 8 ball for the pool table.
When I pledged, we were told that some frat (I don't remember which one), keeps a troll hidden in their house. If a brother brings home an ugly girl, they stick the troll outside his door while he's in there hooking up with her. Supposedly it's like a big deal if you can steal the troll, but as far as I know, no one has managed to yet! |
I know in the past it was real common for girls to take stuff from the boys and boys to take stuff from the girls...but it was always returned. It seems like every time the PSK's get something stolen it is never returned. They had huge letters hanging on their wall going upstairs and the Phi Sig guys from Ferris State came and stole those. The guys from here went and got them back. But still, it has come to the point for them, where their house does not even look like a fraternity house anymore because they have taken everything down. They have no paddles up, they have no pictures up, and they have no plaques up. There is nothing up that shows that they are a fraternity. Of course everyone knows, but it is kind of sad. Their house was awesome the way it looked on the inside.
The Delta Tau Delta's here have pictures of them with random stuff they have taken from the sorority houses around here. They have an Alpha Zi Delta composite, a Delta Zeta turtle with their letters on it, a turtle of ours with our letters on it, a Sigma Kappa sweatshirt, and I think an Alpha Sigma Tau pin. No one trusts any of them to come into our houses anymore. But that is their fault. I dunno...part of me wants to say it is ok if the shit is returned, but nothing is going to be returned. And the Phi Sigma Kappa's will probably never get their letters back unless they figure out who took it and go and get them back theirselfs. They have it narrowed down to two fraternity's right now, but they are not sure if they are even right. I dunno, this just really sucks for them...they are all very pissed off about it. |
"Stealing is stealing. Its never OK, and its contrary to the values of every single GLO with which I'm familiar."
Russ, thank you for saying this.:cool: While prankism may be in mind with the Risk Management it isnt anymore. Greeks are in the limelight to often so any thing that throws a beam upon us will turn out negative.:( |
Oh goodness. If it's done right and the item is returned unharmed, it's funny. The problem is kids these days are too lazy to do it right. Pranks are fun if you know what you're doing and aren't an idiot.
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Common sense is needed for a less kind world.
Try using 3" wood screws if their is a stud or T-111 you can drive into, or look for screws with drywall hangers if you have drywall. Other alternatives are adhesives, and some framing companies sell "theft proof" wall hangers for pictures to go on. More theft of these kind of items occurs late night on weekends with alcohol/drugs involved with the offenders. If you have a charter hanging from a wire, where anyone can take it, trust me it will disappear. However if you need a set of tools or a drill, chances are 99% of would be thieves will try to steal it and give up, since now there is an extra level of planning and risk of getting caught involved. If you are a sorority and dont know how to use tools, call a carpenter from the local yellow pages, it would be worth the time to get your items installed so they can be displayed with a reasonable chance of them not getting stolen. The days when you could trust the local community and students to respect your stuff are long gone. Take a look at a Campus Old Main or Union style building, go and see if you can even move any "framed" items from the walls, you probably cant, they have it all locked down already, get wise and get it done right. Lenox Lambda Chi Alpha Alum |
This story was told to us by the alumni this year...
My house has these fairly heavy statues of our mascot in the living room of our house. About 3 or 4 years ago, someway, somehow, a fraternity TOOK one of the LIFESIZED statues out of the living room without anyone noticing for about 2 days. It showed up on our doorstep with it's face painted kinda "KISS" style and the fraternity's letters on the side. What was so weird is that the guys had been invited to the house for some reason (maybe a pre switch day meeting or something of the like) and took it out of a room full of sisters! But the main thing that gets taken, and that certain people make it a MISSION to take, are pledge books. Most houses have gotten wise and made them look just like regular folders. Of course, carrying your book everywhere makes it vunerable. There are rules to book stealing though. 1) Active members cannot (should not) take books. 2) if it is under/in/covered by anything or anyone, it cannot be taken. It must be blatently neglected in the open. The cafeteria tends to be the spot of many a book steal. 3) if a book is taken, you're under oath to not read it, it's a mutal respect thing. 4) you may steal your book back. 5) You cannot CANNOT steal a book while giving/recieving a signature from a man or a woman. It doesn't happen often. If my book was stolen, I'd be HORRIFIED.To be fair, I'd never try to steal anyone's book, just because I know I'd be upset if that happened to me. |
OH! some of the fraternities go and request certain items from sororities (usualy things like letter blocks, or a stuffed mascot or a shirt of some sort). Usually the house is alerted to the arrival of said pledges and have something ready for them. Usually it's given at the price of a song ("we love you xyz oh yes we doooo...") and returned within 24 hours (sometimes the same night).
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Counter-attacks...
When I was a pledge, we found out about a tradition a certain sorority on our campus does to fraternity pledges who come for "items."
The sorority, which will remain un-named, has a nice house a block from the ocean... LOL... The house has a courtyard, and has a bunch of windows overlooking the courtyard... When pledges arrive, a girl would come out as if she had been awaken... She'll take a picture with them, or give whatever it is they needed... Then the house manager (sometimes the house mom) would open one of those windows above the courtyard and scold the boys for being so loud, and to hurry up and leave... So the boys turn to leave the court yard............ Then.... WHEEEEEEW... BOOM.... All windows upstairs are open, and there are dozens of girls hurling water balloons at the fraternity pledges... :) Heck, we even got a "DRIVE BY ballooning!" Yes, a truck, girls, and water balloons... :D Boy was that fun! GO BEACH!!! |
once we had a mission where we had to "steal" things from the frats on frat row... any item from each house, but they had to include at least one toothbrush, a pool ball, and a roll of toilet paper. we weren't allowed to drink, and we had to sort of convince the brothers into giving us these items (or letting us take them -- this was a sat night, we weren't breaking in to the houses or anything) but couldn't tell them why. (we then returned everything a few hours later)
we wouldn't even think of taking anything important.. we took things like a sock, a comb, a plunger (which had a guy from that frat yelling out the window "ewww you girls are so sketchy!" -- this being from the sketchiest frat on campus :p ). it was fun having 2 girls go in.. one pretending to be really drunk and needing to use the bathroom and the other apologizing for the "drunk friend" while the first girl grabbed a toothbrush and shoved it down her shirt. i agree that stealing is stealing and we prob should not have done this... but its a tradition and we return everything and no harm is done |
I have mixed issues about stealing. My campus is small and sororities each have a corridor in a dorm building. Due to this there is a mutual rule about stealing. Usually if it is done it is done by sorority girls at fraternity houses grabbing like a glass or something like that. Sometimes more serious stuff is taken. The entire greek community seems to take it pretty well, however there are things which is understood to be off limits. Once our founding members composite was stolen but after a week it was returned. This usualy happens if something important to the sorority is stolen. I dont see some of it as a big deal, but i dont agree with breaking and entering or manipulating people. It's usually just being at a frat party and seeing a semi formal cup laying around or other such things with letters on and stealing it. It is also understood that if you are careless enough to leave something like your letters or pledge book laying around and unguarded you're not respecting them and fraternity guys feel less bad about taking them.
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The problemo is it can get out of hand. When it does, there can be serious problems as it escalates over a period of time. People can get harmed and there We go again.
Fun at the time? But just stop and figure how the legal system is becomeing. Sad But True!:( |
I agree that it can get out of hand and it has calmed down alot from what it used to be and you are right about the legal system. I just look at some of it as pranks rather than stealing. There is a specific sign my sorority owns and it had a past habit of being stolen by a fraternity on campus, if it was missing we knew they had it, and we would get it back. It became a game between us and thankfully that is how it is all usually viewed on campus.
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we have a huge Pi in our entrance way because our Alpha and Delta got stolen from in front of our house.ever since the sorority row was built, all the sororities get pranked on an almost weekly basis.
i think the stealing thing gets really old after the 10th or so time.:rolleyes: |
Yeah I would not be happy if someone stole something like that from us. That just involves too much time and effort and I understand why people would do that...
Last year one of my good friends fraternity houses got broken into and every single one of their composites was stolen.. that's just ridiculous |
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Very mature guys. |
The funniest thing I have ever seen stolen was last year. The Phi Delta Theta boys stole the bar from the basement of the Phi Kappa Psi house during a party! I have no idea how they did it... but it worked. I hear there is plans for the pop machine.
The only other things here that really happen are composite pictures getting stolen and signed. We don't have a composite that Lambda Chi Alpha hasn't signed the back of. A couple years back some of their members stole out composite during semi formal then proceeded to "porn it" (place nudie picks all over it). They then took a picture of the porned composite and placed a link to it on the Universities web site. Really it's all in fun. As long as no one gets hurt, nothing gets damaged, and everything is returned eventually, it's cool. |
At my school if you take something from one of the houses, you do a swap thing to get your item back. For example, in order to give something back you can ask for something in return like pizza and ice cream for everyone. It's usuallly fun and nobody ever holds an item for more than 2 days.
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I think it can be okay, I mean lets have some perspective here. It can be taken too far though. We had a break in by another frat. They broke a window to get in, vandalized the building and grabbed everything in site. We got the police involved and got it all back, but they definielty took it too far.
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Anything we ever did was always in the spirirt of fun and the guys knew it! They would play the same kind of pranks on us! We always had a good time with it. I think it is totally disrespectful not to return anything you might have borrowed, but as far as I know on my campus this is a game that has been going on for years! |
I remember my Sophmore year Gamma Delt stole a bunch of girls underwear (don't ask why) from a local sorority....THERE is still talk on campus about it. The girls pressed charges. Its a mess. HEaring that just supports why it sometimes is not ok. Stealing is stealing...borrowing is borrowing however....I think that both sides have to be comfortable with the prank...as clearly was not in this case and overstepping the lines by taking their undies.
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Common sense dictates that Greeks pulling pranks on other Greeks perpetuates the sort of stereotypes we get angry with when the media potrays us as drunken and immature vandals. Too bad they are reporting the truth.
Use maturity and when in doubt remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When one sorority or fraternity is made out to look bad, we all lose. |
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"Immature" is in the eyes of the beholder. All kids are immature to someone out of college; Greeks are no different. "Vandals" are defined as people who destroy property. As for a prank, or practical joke, some enjoy it. If it isn't accepted in that environment or with that group, fine. Common sense dictates being cautious and does not equate a joke that both people enjoy with alcohol nor destruction. -Rudey |
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I'm just curious, but isn't some of this a risk managment issue? We were never allowed to do hunts, or knowingly help other groups in case hazing was an issue. And what if someone is sneaking in and gets hurt, aren't their liablity issues. I'm just curious.
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That's the funny thing. They knew what it stood for and the meaning behind it.
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That's also why the composite at the house is displayed in a locked case. |
For me if another fraternity steals anything of my fraternities those are fighting words, if a sorority steals something that doesn't have letters as a prank its ok. The reason I stumbled across this site is cause just yesterday some freind of my younger sister stole my hoody and I caught the girls boyfreind WEARING IT. Let me tell you how far I took it, I walked over to him and he could tell I was pissed, and I said take them letters off right now...his reply was "What's the big deal?" that was the last thing he got to say. About 10 min later after I beat the snot out of the kid and physically pulled the hoody off him as he lay on the ground, him or his girlfreind will never EVER make that mistake again. So be careful which fraternities and which brothers you do it to. Some take it less seriously then others. For me being a brother isn't just a college thing anymore as I have graduated. Its a way of life for me, its what motivates me and what drives me and to see someone wearing my letters that has no idea the commitment it takes to wear those letters..they will get a real quick education from me.
SigEp |
so it's not okay for a kid to wear your letters, even though he doesn't really understand the significance of them, why he shouldn't, etc. but it's okay for you to "beat the snot" out of him? Way to represent your fraternity. How about educating the kid instead of using violence?
For the record I don't think it's okay for someone to wear someone else's letters, but some kids don't know any better or don't know why it's wrong. That doesn't mean you should cause physical harm to them! If you really did "beat the snot" out of him, he should've called the police and you would've had some nice charges against you. |
Now days, there aren't really any greek houses near or on campus anymore. There were quite a few when I was an active. I just remember being at a fraternity house for a party and seeing another sorority's composite sitting behind a couch.
My girls have stolen paddles from off the walls of houses that left their doors open (which is just dumb to begin with) along with trophies and whatnot. Pretty sure they all got returned. We are pretty good at TPing though. |
stealing from other greeks is an old fun tradition. As long as stuff gets returned in a couple days, I see no harm done. I remember when one fraternity hit all the houses on the street (including their own) and left it all on our front porch to pin us. Obviously we woke up and returned all the items to their houses and said "we didn't know how it got stolen." It was all pranks and jokes, and part of the college experience.
I think it's just a pride thing, to get your rush signs, charter, or letters stolen is a sacred item to a chapter and makes them look vulnerable and weak. Let them talk shit but return the stuff anonymously if you're afraid of repercussions from this stunt. Or better yet, duct tape the members who stole the stuff and leave them with a note at the front door of victim's house with the stolen items. I'm sure that tale will be told for years to come... RUgreek |
Who honestly steals someones letters?
So I am an Alpha Gam @ Eastern Michigan University. I happen to know a lot of PSK's and stealing someones letters is just not cool. It is stealing something that is sacred to them and they have secret meaning.
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