Three Wabash College students masked as Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama have been caught trying to steal the 300lb Monon Bell from Depauw University.
Wearing matching white jumpsuits, Aaron Scott, 21, Mason Owen Simmons, 18, football kicker Schuyler Nehrig, 19, and their getaway driver Brendan McCoy, 19, headed to the Lilly Center in Greencastle, Indiana, during Depauw’s Fall break on Thursday, as reported by the Indianapolis Star.
Scott, Simmons, and Nehrig hid under the bleachers at the sports facility for six hours waiting for it to clear out. When it did, they sneaked out and unfastened the Monon Bell – a trophy awarded to the winner of a football game between Wabash and DePauw University every year since 1932.
Wearing white jumpsuits and masked as Presidents Trump and Obama, Aaron Scott, 21, Mason Owen Simmons, 18, Schuyler Nehrig, 19, tried stealing the Monon Bell from Depauw University
Washab football kicker Schuyler Nehrig is pictured left, and 19-year-old getaway driver Brendan McCoy, is pictured right. They and the other two suspects will be charged with misdemeanor trespassing
But the bell had a pressure sensor that alerted authorities as soon as it was lifted from its stand, and the boys didn’t even make it outside before being confronted by police.
Stealing the bell is a tradition for Wabash/Depauw students, who have stolen it back and forth on multiple occasions since as far as 1965, when a Wabash student posing as a Mexican dignitary was given a tour of the Depauw campus and came back with other students to steal the trophy after discovering its location.
Luckily for the students, Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter understood the history behind the prank and even admired the thought put behind it.
The students reportedly brought along zip ties and sweat socks to cover and restrain the bell’s clapper, and a dolly to wheel it out, and were spotted on surveillance video a week before the attempted theft checking out the Monon Bell display and laying down coins to measure the size ratchet needed to remove the bolts holding it in place, according to the Greencastle Banner Graphic.
‘Who said bipartisanship is dead?’ asked Bookwalker, making light of the trio’s chosen disguises of Trump and Obama, the local news outlet reported.
He also cracked a joke about Nehrig, praising the kicker for his courage.
‘They always talk about football players looking down their nose at the placekicker,’ he joked. ‘(Nehrig) had a set of guts on him, for a placekicker.’
The three students, plus getaway driver McCoy will be charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing, the lightest possible charge.
Do it for tradition: Stealing the bell is a beloved tradition for Wabash/Depauw students, who have stolen it back and forth on multiple occasions since as far as 1965
Scott, Simmons, and Nehrig hid under the bleachers at Lilly Center (pictured) for six hours waiting for it to clear out
Bookwalter said that although stealing the bell is tradition, he had to make example out of the four boys.
‘We’re cognizant that this is a college prank or whatever,’ he said, ‘but when you go into a building and hide out for six hours, we’ve got to do something.’
And the police officers who caught the students red-handed had some fun making them think they would get arrested- The Greencastle Banner Graphic reported that when they asked the boys why they shouldn’t be charged with theft, they replied, ‘tradition’.
‘Theft is not a tradition,’one of the officers answered.
Bookwalker said he’s never had anyone try to steal the bell in 13 years on the job, and he offered the students a deferment program that will allow their record to be wiped clean if they stay out of trouble through the school year and do some community service.
‘They’ll be cracking jokes about this at their 25-year reunion,’ he said.
The coveted Monon Bell could once again trade homes on November 11, at the 124th Annual Monon Bell Classic between DePauw and Wabash.
The coveted Monon Bell could once again trade homes on November 11, at the 124th Annual Monon Bell Classic between DePauw and Wabash (pictured is last year’s game)