Crimes at the Café
Cheap students find it easy to pickpocket paninis
It’s Tuesday at noon and you’ve got 15 minutes to make it to your class on time. You’re starving, though, and you know that you won’t be able to focus unless you get a delicious Twister panini from Café 212. You get there right at peak rush hour; the queue for sandwiches extends all the way to the bathrooms and this is your last opportunity to grab something to eat for the day. Now that you’ve waited 15 minutes, the hot sandwich is in your hands and you’re ready to bolt out the door to Hamilton. The problem? The line to pay for the panini is almost as long. Forget it, it’s crowded and nobody’s looking—you head out the door without paying.
This scenario, according to the perky Maxie Glass, CC ’09, is a common motivation for students to pilfer from Café 212 or Ferris Booth. Cindy Hawkins, GS, prefers to look at the situation from a more lenient point of view: “We all get a little absent-minded around finals.” At the same time, Hawkins asks, “If they [those who steal] are, we ought to find out why. Is it part of some fraternity stunt? Are they simply creepy? Or lacking in ethics?”
Lu Han, BC ’08, can’t believe that anyone at Columbia or Barnard could be “that desperate.” Whatever approach you take on the situation, understand that pilferage actually occurs.
“It’s not really that I’m desperate. It’s just that the lines are so long, and I don’t have time to wait sometimes,” an anonymous student, CC ’09, admits. “I’m not like, a chronic stealer or anything—it’s just easier.”
Whereas one thief may give in to the pressure, others would never dream of stealing from one of the campus dining establishments—no matter how late they are.
Spencer Silverstein, CC ’09, said that he probably wouldn’t because “the ladies are so nice to me.” One time, Silverstein didn’t have enough money and employees let him go. He still came back the next day to pay them. As far as reporting the crime to a cashier goes, most people wouldn’t do that, either. The only thing that prevents Glass from stopping the culprits is her firm belief in karma.
Some students have a strategy.
“You can’t do it like an amateur. If you walk into 212 when it’s relatively empty, you’re bound to fail. Wait until it’s busy, get your sandwich, pretend like you’re going to buy Naked juice, and, when no one’s looking, walk away like nothing happened. No one gets hurt. If you can keep a straight face while your heart’s beating fast as shit, you’re gold. It’s enormously satisfying,” one anonymous student says.
Joseph Heavey, director of dining services, firmly asserts that there are no rules on how cashiers should react in the event that someone does get caught. But there are certain policies that he would like the staff to uphold. “If there is blatant theft, then the person must go through the University’s judicial process. We don’t expect the staff to be the police or to put themselves in harm’s way. They are not expected to be security, but are expected to address the situation.”
Thus far, Heavey does not have an exact number for theft, referred to as shrinking, in dining.
“Loss of product gets rolled into overall food cost or cost of goods sold,” he writes in an e-mail. “Average cost for theft varies based on the type of operation, location, physical layout, security features and product mix.”
After looking at the cost of nabbing a bite to eat, you might think that it is not worth all of the trouble. But Ashley Moss, CC ’10, notes that the architectural layout of places such as Café 212 and Ferris Booth make them conducive toward stealing. “Well, you could get a panini and just walk out of the door. You don’t even have to walk past the register. At Ferris, it may be a little harder, because there is only one clear exit. But sometimes it doesn’t seem like if the cashiers are paying attention. So anyone could potentially just walk on the other side of the partition and exit.”
Heavey and the dining staff is definitely aware of how easy it can be.
“We strategically place certain items in certain places (e.g. smaller items by the register), use mirrors, train the staff and management, etc,” he writes. “Yes, we have taken critical looks at all of our locations and some of them have very challenging layouts for theft prevention, like 212. When we have the opportunity to renovate or reorganize a location we always take security into consideration.”
“I know that the bag of chips is only 50 cents,” says another anonymous, self-professed pilferer, BC ’08. “If they figure out how to make those lines move faster, I think it’d make a big difference.”