By: Josh Wolmer and Holly Feola
Vandalized sign on Woodland Road reads “asell University” on the night of September 14. Photo by Alexandra White
While on a nightly patrol on September 7, Campus Police discovered the letter “L” from the Lasell University sign on Woodland Road was missing. They sent an email to the community asking for any assistance the public could provide and assured given information would remain confidential. A photo of the vandalized sign was included in the email, reading “asell University.”
Detective Lieutenant Richard Heslin said, “there’s so much pride in the university, [Campus Police] knew [the suspect] was probably a little bit concerned for the community, and that they would want to be like an active participant in trying to make this incident right. So we reached out to the community, and we got a lot of good information from them. Ultimately, that was able to give us a timeline.” The community support Heslin referenced was integral to the timely resolution.
Detective Lieutenant Heslin was asked if Campus Police had any evidence that led them to the vandal. Heslin said, “the cameras are all sporadically throughout campus. From the timeline that we got from the community, some people were like, ‘Hey, I remember taking a picture there on such and such a day, and it was there.’ Then that gave us a starting point.”
From there Heslin said, “we were able to run the cameras. And that was a lot of legwork. And the thing with that is right when we had the people that we thought were involved, they walked through the door and said, ‘we’re involved.’”
According to Parker, after the “L” was turned in, the cost to repair the whole sign would be around $1200. The culprit will be financially responsible, said Parker. The sign was repaired on September 23.
The vandal’s identity is not being shared publicly to respect their privacy.
When Heslin was asked what consequences the suspect would be given, he said, “Student Affairs takes [Campus Police] reports. Oftentimes, we don’t find out what happens until it’s already done. As far as that goes, I wouldn’t even really be able to comment on the privacy matters around it.”
On September 8, an email was sent out from Campus Police notifying the community the “L” was located, and thanked the community for the help they received.
Heslin said, “We’re happy and impressed by the person’s actions [returning the sign] and we understand that mistakes happen.”
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