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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

$5,000 stolen from Pita Pit

Five thousand dollars was stolen from Pita Pit in Ivory Tower earlier this week, according to a police report and the store’s owner.

Two men forced open the gate to the sandwich shop Monday morning at about 5 a.m. and stole $5,000 from a locked drawer and the cash register, said owner Daniel Corno, who watched a surveillance video of the theft.

“They ripped the gate open and got into the front of the store,” he said.

Corno said he did not know the exact amount of money stolen, adding that a Metropolitan Police Department report’s estimate of $5,000 was relatively accurate.

“I want people to know we were robbed,” he said. “They walked into Ivory Tower, on video tape, at 5 o’clock in the morning, wearing a ski mask.”

Corno also said there were other people in the basement of the building at the time of the robbery.

“There were people down there,” he said. “There were deliveries that were being made. There were a few other people that appeared to be maintenance workers on the videotape. I don’t know for sure who they were, but I know for a fact from the videotape that there were other people down in the lower level of Ivory Tower both going up and down the stairs and in the back corridor making deliveries.”

Corno said University Police Department officers did not know whether or not the thieves were students. UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said the department is investigating the incident and confirmed Wednesday night that two perpetrators broke through the gate and stole money in a box near the cash register.

Corno said that he originally told UPD that there had been no sign of forced entry and that the burglar may have been a former employee who had a made a copy of the key. After watching the surveillance video Wednesday afternoon, however, Corno said he ruled out that possibility,

In addition to breaking into the store, the thieves also entered the unlocked manager’s office, according to the MPD report, but Corno said nothing was stolen.

“They were in the office as well, but there was nothing in the office to take,” he said.

Last week, an unknown person stole $7,000 in cash from a student’s room in Mitchell Hall. The door to the room was also forced open in that incident.

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