Student’s laptop stolen from prayer room on Strand Campus

On Saturday afternoon a student’s Macbook Pro was stolen from King’s prayer room on Strand Campus, a place only accessible with a King’s card.

Speaking to The Tab, first year Digital Humanities student, Khadija Said, went to the security team and asked them to help her.

She said: “From the very beginning there was no sense of urgency or even responsibility for what happened – the very essence of every conversation was that it was all my fault, which is what one guy said to me today.”

Khadija continued: “One sister said that she’d seen a laptop with the same description around 2:40, meaning it was stolen in a window of 10-15 minutes, as that was when I walked into the prayer room and couldn’t find it.

“Immediately, I went to security to report a lost laptop, as soon as I got there I was directed back and forth between the desk downstairs and lost property upstairs.

“Later, a colleague of his came and noticed that I was increasingly distressed at the situation. As I told him my laptop was lost, they both went into a discussion about other students who had lost their items, about how students don’t take their valuables seriously, they began reminiscing about a time a Chinese lady had lost her iPhone and found it using an app – someone had stolen her phone and taken it to Lewisham.

“I received a notification from the Find My iPhone app on whereabout my laptop was – Reeves Corner in Croydon. I decided to let security know.

“When I told one security person that his manager was ‘useless’ in dealing with the situation he said that it was my fault and that it wasn’t his job.”

Last year King’s security were criticised for standing by and doing nothing as a student was physically harassed outside the Strand.

A spokesperson from King’s said: “Our highest priority is the safety and security of our students and ensuring they know how to keep their possessions safe.

“Having learnt of the disappearance of this student’s laptop, the Strand Campus Security Manager has been in contact with her and is reviewing CCTV and records of who accessed the room where the laptop was last seen.

“If there is evidence of theft, the information will be passed to the Police.

With regards to the incident on the street outside the Strand campus earlier this year, two men were apprehended by the Metropolitan Police and are now being processed by a Crown Court after King’s security staff followed them to a pub and waited for police to arrive, which resulted in their arrest and charge.”