Police reports state that Carolina Dining Services employees opening the dining hall at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday realized that $166.81 had been stolen from a safe at the top of Lenoir.
In another incident, a CDS employee discovered at 4:34 p.m. Saturday that $299.39 was missing from the cash register after being there for only about 15 minutes, according to a report filed later that day.
The employee reported the incident about two hours later, when he told police that all the $10 and $20 bills had been removed from the drawer, according to the report.
University police cannot give out any more specific information because the case involves an ongoing investigation, said Mark McIntyre, captain of the criminal investigations division of the Department of Public Safety.
But McIntyre said problems like these recent thefts have happened on campus in past years. "A lot of times there have been problems in the past," he said. "A person starts stealing from their place of employment, and they keep stealing until they get caught. If they continue doing it, we catch them."
Ira Simon, director of auxiliary services for CDS, declined to comment on whether an employee was committing the thefts. "I think they have an opportunity to catch the person, so we're trying to keep it as confidential as we can," he said.
Even before the recent thefts, Lenoir had security measures in place. Evan Klingman, general manager of dining services, said Lenoir is equipped with 14 closed-circuit security cameras, which the building has had for about five years.
Aramark Corp., the food services provider for CDS, has specific procedures for handling cash, which include locking it in a safe during the night, Klingman said.
This is not the first brush CDS has had with the law in recent weeks -- several employees have been arrested for various crimes, mostly of a violent nature.
