Night Owl Cafe staff addresses lunch-time robberies
Getting a sizzler from the Night Owl Café is a staple of student life for some students at Keene State College. Some KSC students said they believe sizzlers are filling, tasty and are a very cherished lunch highlight. However, recently, sizzlers are mysteriously disappearing. About 40-50 of the well-know NOC wraps have gone missing on a daily basis, Sodexo employee and sizzler maker Andrea Whitcomb said.
“They count the pitas before every shift and after and they see how many they went through and how many they have left. On a regular basis we do about three-hundred and seventy. But apparently they’ve been about fifty off,” Night Owl Café employee Kristen Dunne said.
This means that one in every seven sizzlers served at the NOC every day is not being paid for.
If the issue is not addressed, the consequences of the thefts will affect all the sizzler lovers. According to NOC team leader and KSC senior Jaclyn Efraimson, “The price of the sizzlers will just go up because it will cost more money to make them”.
The problem hasn’t been isolated to this semester. Whitcomb said sizzlers went missing last year too, and that the new staff is paying attention to address the issue
Samantha Lewis /Equinox Staff
Brittney Rando, KSC senior and NOC employee, said she has also seen the theft before. “Last year people would just jump in the line, I used to see kids get in line that clearly hadn’t paid, it was frustrating.” Sizzler’s also use a lot of food which costs money, “It’s absurd how much food I see gone through in a single day just from sizzlers,” Rando said.
The shock of these crimes is still sinking into the student body. Some KSC students stated stealing sizzlers doesn’t seem like an easy thing to do. “I don’t see how you could steal a sizzler?” freshman Jaclyn Chrobak said.
“I don’t even know how you’d steal them. I personally don’t have a problem with it because they’re really frickin’ good. I wouldn’t steal one, but if you steal one and get in trouble for it that’s your fault,” freshman Connor Havron said.
On the other hand, some students have accomplished their mid-day task of getting away with a free lunch. Whitcomb stated the staff has address different ways in which students get away with a free sizzler. “Some students would just say they got two sizzlers, when they just paid for one. Also, sometimes students would keep the ticket from previous days and try to reuse it, others get their sizzler and then give the ticket to a friend and they use it again,” Whitcomb said.
The techniques sizzler snaggers use may vary from case to case and the reason for stealing one may vary.
The usual profile of a sizzler thief doesn’t seem hard to build. Usually these criminals “Just want a sizzler and they don’t want to pay for it,” Rando said. She said having a meal plan makes a student less likely to steal a sizzler.
“People without meal plans are the ones who typically steal, mostly the upperclassmen because if you’re a freshman you have to have the platinum plan, there’s no real reason for a freshman to steal one,” Rando stated.
For Rando, the expense of sizzlers plays a part in the situation. “It’s like six ninety-five [dollars] now, but if you have a meal plan it’s just like a swipe for the dining commons,” Rando said. New Hampshire’s minimum wage is seven twenty-five [dollars.] That means one sizzler is almost an entire hour of work. “I don’t even know why they’re that expensive,” Rando added.
A KSC junior that asked to remain anonymous said he has taken a sizzler “once or twice,” without paying for it. The student stated that he has a five-meals-a-week plan, “That was not the reason to do it.” He said, “Both times it was pretty much because I was hungry and late for class. I couldn’t do the line to swipe my card and still make it to class.” He indicated getting his hands to a free wraps was easy, “It was crowded so it was not hard to blend in and grab one,” the junior said.
For students who pay, the mind set of a sizzler swiper may be tempting. “I eat sizzlers about once a week, they’re really, really good. I’ve never done that or even heard of kids stealing them, but I definitely can understand doing it,” sophomore Mike Stack said.
The Night Owl Café has plans to stop the stealing. “It’s a lot harder this year than last year to steal them, you have to show the cooks your slip and put it on the spike, and they’ll know it’s for that day because each day we use a different colored stamp to on the receipts,” Rando said.
Whitcomb said the staff is becoming more strict when collecting the tickets. “We are now being more careful that they actually give us the ticket when they get the sizzlers and we check the ticket has the right color stamp,” Whitcomb said.
However, some of the thieves still get through in the often hectic line. But the crime rate seems to be going down. According to Dunne, “This previous week they were off on the count by about five. So it’s coming back around.”
Efraimson recommended the sizzler snaggers to look for alternative ways to get their food. “If you don’t have a meal plan, you can always find someone that would swipe for you, a lot of people don’t mind. Personally, I sometimes swipe for people when they have a low balance,” Efraimson said. Efraimson concluded, “It is just not a respectful thing to do.”
Graham Rissel can be contacted at grissel@keene-equinox.com
Karina Barriga Albring can be contacted at kbarriga@keene-equinox.com