2 Wayne State Students Charged With Stealing Checks For Radio Station
DETROIT (WWJ) - Police discovered a few surprises when they apprehended two 18-year-old Wayne State University students accused of stealing a woman's iPad in the Penobscot Building earlier this week.
In addition to the iPad, a search of the students uncovered 12 checks worth $42,373.53 from various corporations payable to a prominent Detroit radio station and more than eight grams of marijuana, according to Wayne County Sheriff's Sgt. Chris Smith.
The students, Samuel Cooper and Eric Perez, were arraigned Thursday on two felony counts each of larceny from a building. Cooper was also charged with identity theft and possession of marijuana.
Police arrested Cooper and Perez Tuesday morning, shortly after a Friend of the Court worker reported finding the teens rifling through her belongings and taking her iPad from an employee-only area on the first floor of the Penobscot Building. The woman told police she left her things unattended briefly while she went nearby to get a cup of coffee.
Perez was taken into custody following a chase that ended on the 7th floor of the building, while Cooper was arrested outside at the corner of Griswold and Congress.
As police were searching the pair, they discovered the checks, which were stolen Monday from a dorm room at Atchison Hall on Wayne State's campus. The checks were meant as donations for WDET-FM. A student employee of the station had been assigned to deposit them.
Smith said Cooper and Perez had split the checks and hoped to cash them. Both are due back in court for preliminary examinations on April 17.