Sorority Sisters Steal Baby Jesus
 

Oh my goodness:eek:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/...y-jesus-765891

They didn't really steal the Nativity. They moved it from the town square to the front lawn of the President's house. The house is on a main drag. It's not like there was a chance that it would go unnoticed.

MC has a history of pranks. This one ranks up there with the Holiday Inn sign. (When a new dorm was being opened, students obtained a Holiday Inn sign and erected it in front of the new dorm on the night before the ribbon cutting.) Another MC prank was when the students removed the seats in the chapel/auditorium and put them in backwards. They're all bolted to the floor. It took maintenance crews days to fix it and the students did it in just one night.

They were charged with theft. The basic definition of theft is taking the property of another without the owner's freely given consent. They didn't own the nativity scene. They took it without permission. The fact that they then left it where it could be found doesn't change the fact that they took it without the owner's consent. So yes -- they stole it.

Actually, it's not. Misdemeanor theft in Illinois requires an intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property. They clearly didn't intend to deprive the city of the Nativity scene permanently. If they were my kids, I would hire a lawyer and seek to have the charges dismissed.

I think the Warren County State's Attorney and the city council lack a sense of humor. The students shouldn't have been charged with theft. Disturbing the peace, maybe.

I'll readily admit I'm not familiar with specifics of Illinois law; I was going with the basic, generic definition of "theft."

I'll also readily admit I don't have lots sympathy for these students if the pranks you describe are common. I have quite a well-developed sense of humor and have pulled more than my share of pranks in my time. If this were an isolated thing, then maybe it's no big deal. But when the pranks end up requiring maintenance crews to waste time (and money) undoing the prank, then I think my sense of humor about the pranks in general would have given out.

I know that there are crazy things on the books in many (probably all) states, but this seems like a terrible definition for Illinois to embrace. Intent to permanently deprive the owner of property? C'mon. I can hear the conversation now:

Police officer to person charged with theft: So, you stole that diamond necklace?
Thief to officer: Well, I didn't really steal it. I was going to put it back after this weekend's Christmas party.
Officer: Oh, well that's ok, then. As long as you didn't intend to keep the necklace forever.
Thief: Oh no. I wouldn't do anything like that. I just borrowed it. Without asking. I didn't steal it. Really.

If there really is a tradition of pranks at this institution, they (the school, law enforcement, who knows) might very well want to make an example of these young ladies to try to reduce the number of said pranks. I can't say I blame them - especially if I were the president of the institution and was charged with keeping the peace between the community and the college. You don't want to piss off the folks who run the town your school is in.

Here is a link to the Illinois code. Note, the first description of theft does not say anything about intent to permanently deprive. Exercising dominion and control over the property of another is what can and probably is being used against these "young ladies."

http://law.onecle.com/illinois/720ilcs5/16-1.html

DaffyKD

I'm with MysticCat on this one (his first post about theft). I know of a young college woman who thought it was a prank to "borrow" a local establishment's rooftop car sign (you know, like the ones on the Domino's Pizza delivery cars).

Well... the establishment wasn't amused; she went with her parents to return the sign after driving around with it on her car for a month. The establishment pressed charges. The judge was not amused. She had to pay a hefty fine, perform community service, and was in trouble with the Dean of Students (violation of the Student Code of Conduct). Not to mention that this now shows up in any search of her name on court records websites.

Not such a harmless prank after all.

And no, it wasn't me (yes I had to say that).

If this is the worst thing this town has to worry about during Christmas, they really should count their blessings.

I see the headline, and I think to myself "Oh please don't be Kappa."

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Theft or not. Intent to permanently deprive or not, this was dumb.

Hey, amIblue?, don't take it personally, it could have been ANY chapter on ANY day. We who have any degree of experience know this.

It helps to remember that cognitively, the brain is not fully developed until age 24-26 in females, and later than that in males. This is FACT, so don't go hating on me.

In addition to this being a stupid/bad/criminal/thoughtless/selfish idea, there is an additional level of disrespect here in light of the fact that these were religious figures. No pun intended, but is nothing sacred?

One one hand, yes I agree that the city probably has to come down hard on these pranks if they are as big and frequent as described above.

But on the other hand, if this is the dumbest thing 5 sorority girls do this year, it will be a VERY good year. At least what they did is a misdemeanor and not a felony.

Do you worship Jesus, or a plaster figure of him that probably gets stuffed in a garage for the other 11 months of the year?

Every time I see something that takes place on a campus we have a chapter on I always think "Don't be Psi U, don't be Psi U."