Two valuable microphones were stolen from a School of Music recording studio sometime in the past few months.
Only recently discovered, two Neumann U 87 condenser microphones went missing after the end of the Spring 2012 semester.
Music industry junior Steven Pacacek was one of the students who reported the missing microphones.
“I noticed some of the Neumann U 87s weren’t in the microphone cabinet like usual, but I thought maybe they were being serviced or someone in the faculty was using them for something,” Panacek said.
Panacek reported the missing equipment to music industry instructor Jay Crutti the next morning. Crutti was unaware that the microphones weren’t in the cabinet and began searching the two studios for the missing microphones.
“None of the other student engineers were doing sessions at this point in the semester, so nobody has a good idea of when they were last seen,” Crutti said.
It isn’t unusual for things to get stolen, but it’s surprising that such high-value items would go missing at the same time, according to Crutti.
The microphones were valued at $3,200 and $3,800.
“It’s odd, we definitely own items in the studio that are more valuable,” Crutti said. “We have a recording console that’s $80,000, but it’s a little less portable than a microphone.”
“I assume somebody’s combing the security camera footage now,” Panacek said. “So it’s only a matter of time until somebody is identified.”
Crutti said the studio is one of the most secure rooms on campus and that extensive security was already in place. It has been boosted to “paranoid” levels, though.
Despite the security measures in place, theft is a reoccurring problem.
“We’ve always lost equipment over the years. I would say the amount and value of these two particular items is notable, but we always lost equipment either through theft or equipment breaking,” Crutti said.
Incident reports were filed with LUPD and NOPD, but since the investigation is still going on, any leads or suspects cannot be discussed.
Eric Knoepler can be reached at [email protected]