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Vending thefts result in four firings

Staff members in Culler Hall were stealing money from vending machines like the one pictured above. The staffers were fired and await trial.
Staff members in Culler Hall were stealing money from vending machines like the one pictured above. The staffers were fired and await trial.

Kristen Grace, Senior Staff Writer

Staff members in Culler Hall were stealing money from vending machines like the one pictured above. The staffers were fired and await trial. (SAMANTHA LUDINGTON | The Miami Student)

Four Miami University employees were discovered stealing from university vending machines from Sept. 30, 2009 through Jan. 21 and are currently awaiting trial after being charged with theft and tampering with a coin machine Jan. 31, according to Captain Jason Willis of the Miami University Police Department (MUPD).

"Basically there were some employees that were finding a way to get coins out of the machine," Willis said.

According to Willis, the employees found a way to manipulate the identification card system into retrieving money from vending machines in Culler Hall. They would swipe their card and then hit the change return to retrieve money from the machine. However, the money was not being deducted from their payroll return.

"Our theory is that one person maybe found out how to do this and maybe spread the word and others tried it," Willis said.

The problem was detected when the Miami vending began coming up short and product was missing, Willis said.

Therefore, the MUPD set up video surveillance tapes in Culler Hall, which subsequently captured the offenders on tape.

This led to interviews and further investigation by the MUPD, Willis said. The employees were then arrested and charged with theft and tampering with a coin machine.

"Usually in court there will be some restitution that they have to pay to make the university whole with the money they had stolen," Willis said.

According to Bill Moloney, senior director of dining and auxiliaries, more than 79 vending machines have been replaced, and the problem with the system has been corrected.

"Once they helped us determine how the thefts were being committed we were able to use that information to diagnose how the machines could be reconfigured such that further thefts of that nature would not be possible," Moloney said. "The solution involved changing a computer chip in each of the snack machines which we were able to accomplish ourselves in a relatively short time frame."

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Willis did not think Miami has ever had an incident like this.

"I've been here 13 years and I've never heard of anything like this happening," Willis said. "We've had people break into vending machines, but I've never heard of anything like this."

Senior Morgan Riedl was surprised to hear the case was going to court.

"Clearly if you took $1000 out, you knew what you were doing," Riedl said.