Artifact theft investigation continues, security increases
TCU police, Mary Couts Burnett Library take precautions to avoid crime

By Ram Luthra
Staff Reporter

TCU Police Department officials and head university librarian Bob Seal are working together to increase the security of Mary Couts Burnett Library in response to the theft of 112 pre-Columbian, Peruvian artifacts from a storage room.

In addition to increasing the security of the library, TCU Police is continuing its criminal investigation regarding the theft of the pieces.
Seal said he is reviewing the library’s current security system and will ask the police department for assistance.

“For the next couple of weeks, we will review every part of the library to ensure everything is efficiently secured and protected,” Seal said. “We will install several motion detectors and alarms in places where they are not in right now.

“We are working closely with the police department to achieve this goal,” Seal said.

Police Chief Steve McGee said the TCU Police Department has given Seal advice on ways to increase the protection of items to prevent similar incidents.

“We are helping the library improve its security so something like this does not occur again,” McGee said. “We have discussed ways to decrease the number of people who have access to these areas, and we have tried to help them better document the number of people who wish to view any items which are in storage.”

Seal said the artifacts were stored in a room with other items, including items from the collection of former U.S. Speaker of the House Jim Wright. Students and faculty may view the stored items, but must get permission from the Special Collections Department in the library, he said.

Former Physical Plant employee David Earl Word was arrested and charged with a first degree felony for theft of the artifacts. Word was able to gain access to the storage room, because when he was an employee, he had keys to it, McGee said.

“Many people from the Physical Plant had keys to that particular room, including Word,” McGee said. “We have changed the locks of the room and drastically reduced the number of people who have access to these storage rooms.”

McGee said all but five pieces of the collection have been recovered.

The recovered artifacts are currently being held in the library in a different room, McGee said.

Word, 51, is still being held in the Tarrant County Jail with a bond posted at $75,000. He has not yet released a written statement, citing frustration over being photographed at the time of his arrest, McGee said.

“No one has bailed him out yet,” McGee said. “Initially he was very cooperative with helping us, but since his picture was published, he has been less inclined to help our investigation. We will routinely go visit him and see if he has changed his stance on the situation.”

Ram Luthra
r.d.luthra@student.tcu.edu