Akron school board member Rene Molenaur and a colleague told police that her office at the University of Akron’s Polsky Building was “ransacked” over the weekend, according to a University of Akron Police Department incident report. 

Molenaur did not notice that anything was stolen or missing, but a filing cabinet and a desk drawer were rifled through, she told police, some time between Thursday, Jan. 9, and Monday, Jan. 13. She said no “high-value items” such as her computer monitor or laptop computer were taken.

Molenaur is a senior instructional designer with the Online Learning Services department at the university.

“I have noted that numerous items in my office have been moved around, and various personal and professional records have been disturbed, opened, or reviewed,” Molenaur wrote in the incident report. “However, nothing of monetary value appears to have been damaged or stolen.” 

Signal background

When asked about the incident by Signal Akron on Wednesday, Molenaur said she could not comment. Her office in the Polsky Building was unlocked, but inside an area that requires electronic access through a doorway. 

A University of Akron spokesperson said patrols inside the building will be increased in response to the break in. UAPD police records show there have been three trespassing reports and two arrests made at the building in the past month. 

From the police report, it appears that a filing cabinet and desk drawer were the most-targeted objects from the incident. Molenaur found several items from the drawer and files from her filing cabinet scattered on the floor. An envelope containing a Christmas card was torn open, with the card placed next to the envelope. A second envelope was tampered with “as though someone had attempted to check its contents.” The second envelope was still sealed. 

Molenaur also found a partially used jar of Vaseline next to her keyboard. She said the jar didn’t belong to her. 

The suite of offices that her office is in is programmed to have an alarm go off when doors to the suite are accessed, but no alarm went off during the weekend of the break in. 

There are currently no security cameras on that floor of the Polsky Building.

Former Education Reporter
Andrew is a native son of Northeast Ohio who previously worked at the Akron Beacon Journal, News 5 Cleveland, and the Columbus Dispatch before leaving to work in national news with the Investigative Unit at Fox News. He is a graduate of Kent State University.

Government Reporter (he/him)
Doug Brown covers all things connected to the government in the city. He strives to hold elected officials and other powerful figures accountable to the community through easily digestible stories about complex issues. Prior to joining Signal Akron, Doug was a communications staffer at the ACLU of Oregon, news reporter for the Portland Mercury, staff writer for Cleveland Scene, and writer for Deadspin.com, among other roles. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hiram College and a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University.

For routine messages, feel free to contact Doug Brown at doug@signalakron.org. If you have privacy concerns and/or want to share sensitive information, you can reach him on the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal (no connection to Signal Akron) under username @dbrown.2010 and encrypted email account dougbrown8@protonmail.com