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Wabash men in Trump, Obama masks try to steal Monon Bell from Lilly Center
Not even the unlikely, unprecedented partnership of Donald Trump and Barack Obama, it seems, could annex the Monon Bell back into Wabash College territory.
And while the Monon Bell football game may still be three weeks away, DePauw University can already claim an early victory after some late-night gerrymandering during fall break last week.
The Putnam County Prosecutor's Office announced Monday it will be charging four Wabash College students -- including the team's starting placekicker -- with criminal trespass after an ill-fated attempt to steal the priceless Monon Bell from its display case at the Lilly Center was scuttled early Thursday morning.
Three students dressed in white jumpsuits, one in a Donald Trump mask and two in Barack Obama masks -- "Who said bipartisanship is dead?" Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter interjected -- were the apparent culprits.
They were caught after entering the building, unbolting the Bell from its display stand and wheeling it out of the Lilly Center where a fourth Wabash student waited with a pickup truck.
What the Wabash foursome didn't know is that the Bell was equipped with a pressure-alarm sensor, which as soon as the prized Bell was moved sounded an alarm at DePauw dispatch.
On security video recorded from the Lilly Center, you can see police lights come on as soon as the Bell is wheeled out of the building as DePauw Officer Rick Keller and Sgt. Eric Vaughan and Officer Brad Hiatt of Greencastle City Police are waiting on the suspects.
It was Keller who had become suspicious of the getaway truck parked in front of College Street Hall with its parking lights on about 1:50 a.m.
With DePauw on fall break, the truck raised his suspicions, so Keller parked where the driver could not see him. And while he was in the midst of running a registration check on the truck, the suspect vehicle pulled forward on College Avenue to the curb in front of the Lilly Center.
"As I pulled up, I observed three subjects dressed in white coveralls, gloves and wearing plastic Obama and Trump masks exit the building, pushing the Monon Bell on a furniture dolly," Keller said in the probable cause affidavit.
Being charged with criminal trespass in the incident are: Aaron Scott, 21, Roanoke; Mason Owen Simmons, 18, Fort Wayne; Schuyler Nehrig, 19, Greenfield; and alleged getaway driver Brendan McCoy, 19, Indianapolis.
Nehrig is the team's kicker, having converted on 5 of 9 field goals this season and 23 of 24 extra-point attempts. He also scored a touchdown against Ohio Wesleyan earlier this season when he recovered a blocked field goal attempt of his and ran it in for a score.
Nehrig scored all 13 of Wabash's points against OWU, with the touchdown, two field goals and one extra point. His accomplishments in that game were featured on ESPN highlights, and video of the touchdown was a trending topic on YouTube.
Scott, Simmons and Nehrig reportedly hid under the bleachers in the Lilly Center for a reported six hours in their effort to etch their names into Monon Bell lore.
They planned their heist pretty thoroughly, bringing along zip ties and sweat socks to cover and restrain the bell's clapper along with the dolly to wheel the bell out.
The Wabash men also were discovered on videotape from a week prior checking out the Monon Bell display and laying down coins to determine the size ratchet needed to remove the bolts holding the Bell in place, Prosecutor Bookwalter said.
The would-be thieves had the Bell off its resting place in less than three minutes but nearly dropped the 300-pound Monon Railroad relic in trying to set it down on the furniture dolly on the floor.
When the suspects are confronted outside by Officer Keller, he can be heard on his body camera audio asking, "Can you tell me why I shouldn't charge you with theft?"
"Tradition," one of the young men responds.
"Theft is not a tradition," Keller counters.
The young men were long-formed on charges of theft and criminal trespass originally and released after helping Keller take the Bell back into the building.
In reviewing the charges, Prosecutor Bookwalter has decided criminal trespass, a Class A misdemeanor, is what will be charged. He also plans to offer the four men a diversion that will keep a conviction off their record if they plead guilty and complete court-ordered action.
It is Bookwalter's suggestion that the appropriate diversionary activity would perhaps be to clean up the mess after the Monon Bell football game, in classic punishment-fits-the-crime mode.
Bookwalter said both DePauw officials and the Montgomery County prosecutor "are fine with how I'm charging them."
"I don't want to start a nuclear arms race," Bookwalter added. "Our students can get in trouble too. DePauw is fine handling it this way."
Putnam Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges has set initial hearings in the cases for 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 3.
The Monon Bell Game, the oldest, continuous football rivalry west of The Alleghenies, will play the 124th edition in a series that began in 1890 on Saturday, Nov. 11 in Greencastle with kickoff at 1:07 p.m.