Wayne State University has suspended the campus chapter of Theta Tau fraternity after three students were arrested for larceny, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.
The three stole items on a list given to them as part of their initiation into the fraternity at the Michigan college, police said.
According to the Lincoln Park police report, a police officer saw someone jump out of a car on Dec. 11 and steal something in front of a tire store. Police found the 19 and 20-year-old students in the car, along with a pedestal ashtray from the tire shop, a metal toolbox and a statue of the baby Jesus from a Lincoln Park, Mich. resident’s lawn.
Also in the car was a wooden paddle with the Greek letters for Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.
The men face charges of larceny and receiving or concealing stolen property. Wayne State has suspended Theta Tau, pending a longer disciplinary investigation.
“Wayne State finds the alleged behavior unacceptable,” a university spokesman told the Free Press.
The Theta Tau fraternity’s national office said it is “researching the incident,” and that it “has been gathering information over the last few days.”
“We are glad that no one was in any danger or harmed by the incident.”
The News-Herald, a newspaper in Southgate, Mich., first reported the arrests on Dec. 15.
According to The South End, a student-run newspaper on the Wayne State Campus, the Dean of Students said an investigation “will be pursued through the Student Code of Conduct as well as the fraternity’s national headquarters.”
David Martosko is The Daily Caller’s executive editor. Follow him on Twitter.