Thief sneaks into Massey design lab “on a quest”

A witness snapped one picture of the thief hiding under a lighting lamp. Photo / Shaun Henderson 

Despite four police officers, two security guards, and three students, a thief has managed to escape with student property by climbing through vents and jumping down from ceilings.  

On Tuesday the 16th of May, a man came into the Wellington concept design lab and left with a tote bag full of student belongings. 

Design student Shaun Henderson was the only person to witness the entire incident.  

“He kept saying he was on a quest, and he kept saying he was Luke Skywalker,” Henderson said.  

After arriving to Uni at 9:15am, Henderson was alone at the lab when a man wandered in at 9:40am.  

The man tried on past student's cosplay and prop projects and kept a helmet on most of the time to cover his face.  

Student witnesses said the man was very skinny, blue or grey eyes, and had a tattoo on his right forearm, potentially of a sword. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt with a graphic on it.  

After half an hour, Master student Sara Fernańdez arrived, and the man ignored the students as they asked him to stop touching stuff that wasn’t his. 

Eventually the man spoke up, Henderson said, “He was real adamant that it was his and that he was gonna take it all.” 

Henderson called security around 10:25am, but they took longer to get there than he expected. After calling security twice, they showed up around 15 minutes later.  

The man continued to explore and started filling up his tote bag with stuff while security and the students waited for police to arrive.  

Just before police arrived, the thief ran into a small, unlocked door that led up to the vents.  

“He scuttled up real quick,” Henderson said.  

A police officer ran up after the man, but after hearing a loud thump the students turned around and the man had jumped down from the ceiling vents at the other side of the room and was running away.  

“He drops down behind us and just runs out of the building”.  

Henderson said, “He wasn’t there mentally as far as I know. I asked if he was on anything and he said, ‘No, I wish I was’.” 

The man’s tote bag was full when he left, however, only a few stolen things had been identified including Fernańdez’s tripod and another student’s EFTPOS, bus, and Massey swipe card. These have since been deactivated.  

The thief attempted to take a student’s Xbox and glasses but gave it back to the student when he asked nicely.  

In response to Henderson’s experience of security taking 15 minutes to arrive, A Massey University spokesperson said a member of security, who was already in the building, attended the scene as soon as they received the call.  

“There has been an increase in training for security around recognising students at risk and the introduction of standard operating procedures for incident response, which are regularly reviewed.” 

The spokesperson said Massey had taken steps in recent years to ensure campuses are safe, including increased lighting in poorly lit areas, and security cameras in car parks and around building entrances.  

Witness Sara Fernańdez is an international student from Colombia, “The fact that everyone can enter, it was spooky for me at the end of the day.”  

“I think that is the most frustrating, that he escaped with the police here,” she said.  

“He told me, ‘I am a Jedi’.” 

She approached him to make sure he didn’t take more, “When I touched him, he reacted like ‘don’t touch me’… He was such a crazy man.” 

The university has since put locks on the doors to the lab vents and added a 24/7 swipe card access to Block 10 and the lab entrance. It has also increased security in the area and was looking into getting design students lockers for their valuables.  

If you find yourself in an unsafe situation on any Massey campus, you can call security on 0800 627 750.