Former IU custodian arrested for theft of instruments

A former IU custodian, Sean P. Ray, 30, was arrested Monday for stealing $45,000 worth of instruments from IU last December.\nRay was scheduled for a pretrial conference for an unrelated theft case Monday. When he appeared for this case, he was arrested for the theft of the Jacobs School of Music instruments and on a warrant related to his failure to appear in court at an earlier date, said Brittany Rollins, administrative officer for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.\nOn Dec. 13, administrators at the Simon Music Recital Building reported to IU Police Department that a storage closet was missing 11 instruments. IUPD immediately began calling pawn shops and discovered that one shop had recently received instruments that fit the description of the missing instruments, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said.\nWhen Officer Marty East and Detective Greg McClure reported to the pawn shop, they discovered that the instruments fit the description of the instruments that belonged to the IU Jacobs School of Music. IUPD identified the seller as Ray, an IU custodian. \nIUPD received a warrant in December for his arrest but was unable to locate him.\n“We looked for him at his known hang outs and residences. We assumed he had left town,” Minger said.\nRay’s court date is now set for April 7.\nTen of the instruments have now been returned to the Jacobs School. IUPD discovered three piccolos, four flutes, two oboes and one English horn. IUPD was unable to locate one piccolo, said Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity for the Jacobs School. \n“The fact that we got the instruments back means it didn’t affect us all that much,” Barker said. “I imagine it made it difficult for the students to complete their work. We are lucky we got them back so quickly.”\nTwo sets of locks were on the doors locking the instruments. As a custodian, Ray had the necessary keys to allow him to get through the established security. Since then, the Jacobs School has added another lock to which custodians don’t have access.\n“Measures have been taken by the Jacobs School of Music to prevent this from happening again,” Barker said.