[honeychile]

A few of y'all may have heard this one:

When I was in school, there was a lifesized portrait of whomever the dorm was named for in the lobby of each dorm. The all-sorority dorm, Amos Hall, had Miss Thyros Amos (c.1920) in our lobby, and catty-corner across the quad, Chancellor Holland was in Holland Hall's lobby.

During finals one year, the TriSigs decided to "borrow" Miss Amos & were bragging about it. A few of my sisters pulled a raid and kidnapped Miss Amos, leaving a ransom note that they would return her for Chancellor Holland. We put the (heavy!) portrait above the sofa in the informal living room - where the Study Break Bar was located. While we were all taking our nightly study break, the TriSigs kidnapped Chancellor Holland, and once they got to their floor, they pushed our floor number.

The next thing we knew, my little and I were sitting under the portrait (we had taped a party hat, confetti, and and ADPi paper pin on her by this time) when the police arrived. One immediately yelled, "We're here for the stolen painting!" while the other policeman behind him stared at the combination of 6-8 half-dressed sorority women & a painting with goofy things on it. I said, "Painting? What painting?" The officer said, "Someone stole the portrait of Chancellor Holland!" I said, "Chancellor Holland? Haven't seen him. Isn't he in Holland Hall?" Everyone else was shocked at how calm I was. The police said that there was a group of women who had taken Chancellor Holland, the last button pushed on the elevator was for our floor, and they had a witness to the theft. Someone else reminded the police that the laundry room was on the floor above us, and EVERYONE in the dorm had to come to our floor to get to the laundry room. They left unhappily.

Quickly, we got the painting down, under a bed, and our crest back up in its place, then sat down in the exact same places. The same police men came up, insisting we had Chancellor Holland, while the one looked at the crest above my little & my heads and scratched his head.

It ended up that the description of the "thieves" was "Uh, one was tall and one was short, and they wore bandanas." Duh! We all had to put our coats on, with bandanas, and had a photo lineup (not knowing that the TriSigs were also having the same thing done!). "Andy & Barney Fife" weren't happy that we kept giggling throughout the whole thing. Technically, we didn't get arrested & booked, but we had to report in until the TriSigs gave up Chancellor Holland - and two sisters did have to go to the police station (one was tall, one was short!). It made for some good campus gossip, and I still have photos of the "Lineup"!

That's the truth and nothing but!