Who’s Ripping Off the Cups at Augustana?

Generally, amnesty is defined as any governmental pardon for past offenses or crimes, especially political ones. Granting amnesty goes beyond a pardon, in that it forgives the said offense completely.

Augustana College in Sioux Falls has declared a campus amnesty for the return of hundreds of missing cups. More than 1,000 of the plastic glasses have disappeared from the college lunchroom since fall adding up to $900.

Augie is reluctant to dispatch "cup cops" to enforce the policy. But if the cups keep disappearing guess who pays more to eat to offset the loss?

The school cafeteria is meeting the real world.

Reports from $3 water glasses to $1,200 silver ice buckets, from vintage photographs hanging on the walls to scented candles burning in the bathrooms -- if it isn't nailed down, diners have walked off with it from Diners to upscale-five-star restaurants.

Over the course of a year, restaurants around the country lose as much as 3 percent of their earnings to theft by customers who seem to be getting more brazen by the minute. spoons, pepper mills, imported wineglasses, linens, framed artwork, serving platters, Champagne buckets. The list of stolen goods boggles the imagination. And the ways restaurateurs are coping with the phenomenon is changing the dining experience for everyone. Could it change the dining experience at Augustana?

No one wants to go paper and plastic as the campus works to be more “green”.

The recoup is encouraged with a WANTED POSTER too.