Bar association, students create humorous solutions to lunch thefts at UCLA School of Law
Lunches were reportedly stolen from the law school refrigerator.
By Alexia Boyarsky
Jan. 26, 2012 12:15 a.m.
Justice has not yet been served at the UCLA School of Law in a spate of cases of law students whose lunches have been stolen from the student lounge.
So far, there have been around seven reported thefts from the student refrigerator in the law school lounge, three of them coming in the first week of this semester, said Manal Hanna, president of the Student Bar Association.
Hanna, who was also on the association last year, said the number of complaints about stolen lunches have increased dramatically in the past year ““ no emails were received last year about this problem.
The lounge is open to the public, so it is difficult to narrow down a suspect because anyone could have walked in, Hanna said.
“This is somewhat a ridiculous problem, but at the same time, if you’ve got your whole week planned, then it can be annoying,” she said.
The latest theft came this Wednesday, said Nakkisa Akhavan, vice president of the association. Her lunch, and a Tupperware container of brownies, was stolen from the fridge a few weeks ago.
In response to the emails, the student group held a meeting where it discussed potential solutions to the problem.
“We were kind of joking around about it and coming up with funny solutions, but we also wanted to show students that we were doing something about it,” Akhavan said.
Some mock solutions included installing a fake surveillance camera in the lounge and offering a group rate on locked lunchboxes for the students, she said.
They also jokingly appointed a “Fridge Security Patrol,” Hanna said.
“I told (the Fridge Security Patrol) that she had to put that title on her resume, because it’s the most important position in the law school right now,” she said, laughing.
The association sent out an email to all of the law students two weeks ago, telling them about the problem and suggesting that students write their names on their lunches to avoid confusion.
Other students came up with their own ways to protect their lunches.
“I wrap my lunch in a plastic Ralphs bag so that it looks less appealing in the fridge,” law student Addy Rockwell said with a laugh.
Students said the thefts were more of an annoyance than anything else.
“Sometimes I plan on staying (at school) for the entire day, so I bring myself dinner, and if that gets stolen and Lu Valle isn’t open, then I basically have to go home,” law student Deanna Maxfield said.
Akhavan said the association does not have any plans at the moment to look into who is committing the thefts, but the student group will continue to monitor the situation.
