Jobless college graduate resorts to stealing from university

An unemployed law school graduate has been arrested for stealing tablet computers and other valuables that students left unattended at two schools in Songjiang University Town, local police said Wednesday.

The suspect, who was not identified, was accused of stealing two tablet computers, a wallet and several bank cards from classrooms at Donghua University and East China University of Political Science and Law, according to a post on the microblog of the Songjiang University Town police station.

The suspect got a law degree in 2012 from one of the universities in the town, though police did not disclose which one. Police noted that the suspect took seven years to obtain his four-year degree.

He targeted open classrooms that students used to study on their own, said a chief from the police station surnamed Cui. It was common for students to leave their belongings in these classrooms overnight when they intended to come back the following day to study.

"The suspect would go to the classrooms early in the morning when no one was around and grab the valuables that students had left on the tables," Cui told the Global Times.

At one university, campus security guards had seen the suspect stealing in surveillance video footage. They contacted police when they saw him again at the university.

When the responding police officers arrested the suspect, he challenged their knowledge of the law, insisting that he had simply found the items, according to the post.

Cui said that the suspect came from Sichuan Province. After graduation, he went back to his hometown, then returned to Shanghai to look for work. He travelled to Zhejiang Province in March, but couldn't find a job that suited him.

Police have arrested three university graduates for stealing from nearby campuses over the past week, Cui said.

Two of the suspects had attended universities in the area. The other graduated from a university outside Shanghai. Their cases were unrelated.

"The suspects were familiar with the campuses," Cui said. "They knew that students were careless with their belongings and would leave valuables lying around when they went to the bathroom or left to buy something."