Textbooks stolen from Richmond bookstore for heroin

In eight days, four people stole more than $5,000 in textbooks from the campus bookstore to buy heroin, campus police said.

Caitlin E. Spencer, 23, of Chesterfield County, Christopher D. Loren, 27, of Chesterfield County and Arden Wesley Searles, 27, of the city of Richmond were all arrested on charges of felony shoplifting in conspiracy. All three have posted bail, according to the arrest report.

Campus police are still looking for Christian R. Brackett, 27, of Chesterfield County, who they suspect was the fourth person in the group, Meacham said.

Tim Meacham, campus police officer, said none of those charged were enrolled at the University of Richmond. He said one had been enrolled at John Tyler Community College, one at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College and the other two were not students.

When the theft happened police were training with new cameras in Jepson Hall, Meacham said.

He said he had turned the cameras on for the training exercise, and it just so happened that the cameras were last scanning the bookstore. At the moment the camera went on he saw a woman shoving textbooks into her purse, he said.

They arrested the woman on campus. The officers found three textbooks in her purse. When officers began to question her, she admitted that she was a heroin addict, Meacham said.

"She was able to provide some information about how long they had been stealing from the bookstore and the identity of the people involved," Meacham said. "I think they knew which books that they wanted to get, but they didn't have a list when they were in there."

The books ranged from Organic Chemistry books to Business Statistics books. The least expensive book was valued at $148.

Meacham looked at the rest of the bookstore footage to compile a case against the other three suspects. He determined that 34 textbooks had been stolen.

"People from this group of four people would come into the bookstore one or two people at a time," Meacham said. "They would come in and take three or four textbooks and leave here and go to within 30 minutes of leaving here.

"From Sept. 19, 2011 until Sept. 27, 2011, they had 12 incidents involving this group of four people and textbook thefts from the campus bookstore."

Meacham, his partner and the bookstore employees have determined that this is the third semester that books have been stolen and sold at BookHolders, he said.

"They were selling the textbooks to support their drug addiction," Meacham said.

Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said it [textbook thefts] had been a serious problem.

Meacham worked with the Chesterfield County Police to find each suspect before they were arrested for the indictments. He said that he had had an appointment with one of the suspects and he had canceled at the last minute, saying that he had had a big project to complete.

Later Meacham found out that the suspect who had canceled their meeting had been trying to sell textbooks at BookHolders at the exact time of their meeting and at that time BookHolders refused his sale.

The police and court system are now waiting for the last suspect to be arrested and then the court will begin its trial.

"We [campus police] organized a meeting with the textbook retailers from Ashland to Petersburg to discuss this challenge," Meacham said. "From that meeting we highlighted some cases and discussed in general the different stores policies and procedures and developed an email listserv that we administer here at the university for all of the retailers that were in the meeting."

Roger Brooks, manager of the bookstore, said the listserv had been helpful in helping to identify who had stolen the books.

"This type of activity drives the cost of textbooks," Meacham said. "They come in stealing from us to fulfill a selfish need. What they don't see is this semester and next semester, the impact comes back in the price of textbooks."

This summer the police department plans to host another program to bring even more campuses and bookstores into the listserv they have created.

Contact reporter Amanda Minnittee at amanda.minnittee@richmond.edu.