A 33-year-old former Ball State University employee was arrested after he biked to campus, entered the underground tunnel system and broke into Bracken Library early Sunday morning, police said.
Police arrested Michael Kerney, who was also a Ball State student until November 2001, on suspicion of burglary, theft, institutional criminal mischief and criminal trespass, according to police reports.
"My guess is that he saw an opportunity, but beyond that it just doesn't make sense," Bradley Faust, assistant dean for library information technology services, said.
Officers found him in the library's basement around 5 a.m. trying to pry open a door with a crowbar, according to police reports. Several other doors in the Educational Resources room were also damaged, but nothing was missing, Faust said.
There is a lot of valuable technology in the library that students use and that the library staff takes precautions to keep safe, he said.
Kerney got into the library by moving a metal access grate on the northwest side of the library. From there, he went into the underground network of tunnels connecting the buildings in that part of campus, according to the reports.
He was then able to make his way through the tunnels and into the library, Jim Lowe, director of facilities planning and management, said.
The cover that he moved was like others on campus, for which he would have needed a key to open, but this one was out of place because of the construction being done to the sidewalk, and it was in position Friday, Lowe said.
"This person somehow happened to find it open at the right time, but all covers are normally always locked," he said.
Before going to the basement, Kerney was on the fourth floor, but he didn't find anything of interest, so he went to the first floor and changed a computer screen hoping to make the next user laugh. He then tried to break into the offices behind the circulation desk, according to police reports.
When police found Kerney, he was holding a crowbar and reaching through a broken window to try to open the door to room 14, according to the report.
The officers confronted Kerney, weapons drawn, and searched him and a blue bag he brought with him, which contained a children's book, a surge protector and an omnichord, which is small electronic autoharp.
"The fact that he had the omnichord with him, I'm just puzzled as to what he potentially could have been looking for," Faust said.
Kerney also had three knives in his pockets along with a computer cable, according to the reports.
UPD officers then took Kerney to Ball Memorial Hospital where he is still being held under arrest, Gene Burton, director of public safety, said.
Kerney worked for the university from February 1998 until February 2002, when he was fired for abusive and unacceptable behavior, Glenn Augustine, associate director of university communications, said. During that time, he was the systems technician for the Ball State Daily News.
Kerney also had a warrant out from the City of Muncie for failing to appear in Circuit Court 5 on charges of driving while intoxicated, according to Delaware County Sheriff's office records.
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