Law students were taken aback after a bizarre incident that occurred on November 21st on the transitional campus at Victoria College. A stranger to the U of T law school impersonating a law student stole a student’s laptop computer out of a classroom. Confronted before he was able to escape, the enigmatic thief handed back the device, a brand new 11” MacBook Air, before darting out of Victoria College.
“I will say that this sort of occurrence is very unusual,” said Assistant Dean of Students Alexis Archbold. “This is the first I have heard of someone posing as a law student in a class to steal a laptop. Having said that, we have experienced occasional laptop thefts in our former Bora Laskin Library. Unfortunately, they are a somewhat common occurrence on campuses.”
It was Enoch Guimond (2L) in Professor Carol Rogerson’s Family Law course who had the unfortunate run-in with the impersonator-thief.
Ironically, it was while reading about the fallibility of eye-witness accounts before class that Guimond noticed an individual walking around the Victoria College foyer. Guimond surmised that the man might be looking for something. Guimond headed to room 115 for his 2:00 p.m. class, set up his laptop down on the front row desk, and then stepped aside to talk with some classmates. Once again, he noticed the stranger, this time walking into the room and looking around.
Rogerson, unfamiliar with the impostor student, asked him who he was, showing up for the first time only one week before the end of class. In reply he offered an elaborate story about having been on leave while seeking professional medical treatment for mental health reasons.
Moments later, Guimond saw the stranger walking out of the class, and noticed his laptop missing from the desk. Instinctively, Guimond darted out of the room and blocked the stranger from exiting through the east doors. With his hand outstretched Guimond got the man to stop.
An exchange followed. Guimond recalls asking, “Do you have my laptop?”
“No,” came the man’s denial.
“Please…” Guimond said before being interrupted by the man, who Guimond remembers as being quite a bit bigger and taller than him.
“Give you your laptop back?” the man said, completing Guimond’s sentence.
Then out came the computer from behind a legal-sized dossier that the man has been holding up to his chest.
“Thank you,” Guimond said, taking it back before the stranger slipped out the door and into the Victoria College court yard.
Guimond described the suspect as male, between 6’2” and 6’5”, young, with some facial hair and a medium skin tone. He was reasonably well dressed and looked like an average student, according to Guimond.
