Two people have been charged with theft after allegedly stealing a guitar and two trombones from the St. Thomas music department Nov. 15.

According to Michael Barrett, associate director of Public Safety, the suspects, Michael Joseph Lippert, 33, and Nicole Marie Korolchuk, 29, brought the instruments to a pawnshop for drug money. The suspects are also accused of stealing instruments from Macalester College and Hamline University.

Barrett said the duo has been charged with two counts of theft and are waiting for their court date.

Matthew George, chair of the music department, said incidents like these are not new to the department, but it is still disappointing.

“It’s one of those frustrations,” George said. “We’ve been through this before, and it seems to go in cycles like every six years. So it was one of those ‘not again’ moments; not that it happens all that much, but when it does, it’s something that you don’t like to encounter.”

Barrett said the suspects posed as students and entered Brady Educational Center during the day. He said they likely chose to search colleges because they would more easily blend in with college students than high school students.

Junior music major Elizabeth Rasset said the incident was unnerving.

“I just leave my stuff in BEC like it’s my home, so I was really freaked out that they had been in there in my personal space,” Rasset said. “It made me freaked out and a little angry.”

George said the guitar and one of the trombones, which belonged to a student, have been recovered. St. Thomas owned the other trombone, which has not yet been found.

George said one of the instruments was left in a classroom. The student left for a couple of minutes and when he returned, his instrument was gone. The other two instruments were being stored in lockers, but it’s unknown whether they were locked, he said.

Last semester, BEC installed security cameras and George said once the music department called Public Safety, officers were able to look through the footage and spot the suspects.

“We notified safety and security about (the thefts), and we told them the approximate timeline. They just went back to the video feed from the cameras and saw, ‘OK, there’s the instrument that was described,’ and so they were able to track it down,” George said.

George said he does not think BEC has a security issue.

“We’re pretty vigilant keeping the (instruments) secure,” George said. “People shouldn’t start thinking all of a sudden we have real security issues because we really don’t. If someone is really destined and heartened to get into something, they’re going to find a way to do it.”

Kayla Bengtson can be reached at beng2004@stthomas.edu.