GREENCASTLE — A group of college students reportedly tried to steal the Monon Bell from DePauw University’s Lilly Center last week wearing presidential Halloween masks.

Mason O. Simmons, 18; Schuyler R. Nehrig, 19; and Aaron B. Scott, 21; were caught wearing white coveralls, gloves and plastic Obama and Trump Halloween masks walking out of the Lilly Center with the Monon Bell on a furniture dolly around 2 a.m. last Thursday, according to Greencastle Police. They then tried to get it into the bed of a truck, which officers say was being driven by 19-year-old Brendan AC McCoy.

All four have been identified as Wabash College students.

The group admitted, according to police, to going into the Lilly Center around 6 p.m. Wednesday, then hiding behind the bleachers until the building was closed. They then went to the bell, removed the bolts that secured it to its stand and started taking it to their truck, not realizing the stand the bell sits on had a pressure alarm that immediately sounded an alarm with campus police, who then called Greencastle PD.

They said taking the bell was a tradition. Officers told them it was theft.

Simmons, Nehrig and Scott face charges of theft and criminal trespass. McCoy is charged with theft. All four were released after taking the bell back into the building.

Source: WTHR