RALEIGH, N.C. — Five people, including North Carolina State students, face felony charges connected to the theft of historic hardwood from Reynolds Coliseum.
Officers arrested 21-year-old Benjamin Christopher Ogburn, a junior from Virginia, on Monday. Campus police said Robert Marble and Te-Shawn J-quan Lee, both 21, and 18-year-old Michael Jesus Salgado turned themselves in Tuesday morning. An NCSU Police Major said officers have identified a fifth suspect in the case as well.
All four men taken in custody posted bond and face charges of felony larceny, injury to personal property, and wearing a mask/hood on public property.
Warrants for Ogburn said he went to Reynolds Coliseum on Dec. 7 and took two sections of the former court flooring. Sections of the classic court line the lower level walls. There are old baselines with "NC STATE" and "WOLFPACK" in all caps. A previous portion of the Kay Yow Court logo is on a wall near the main entrance.
The center court circle from the Coliseum is on display at the PNC Arena, where the men's basketball team now plays its games.
Neither NCSU Police nor a spokesperson from the university's media relations department would specify what parts of the court were stolen, but said one of the sections sustained irreparable damage. Warrants listed the value of the memorabilia at $1,350, and cited hundreds of dollars in damages.
Reynolds Coliseum underwent a $35 million renovation and reopened in September 2016 with a Grand Hallway entrance housing pieces of N.C. State Athletics memorabilia. The arena is classified as one of the university's nine Hallowed Spaces.
"It's just a really historic building, and I'm really ashamed at whoever did this. They've got to represent their school with pride, hopefully, and it's just really sad that it happened," freshman John Moses said.
Marshall Wood began attending N.C. State basketball games in the 1970s with his father, a university alumnus. Wood came to Raleigh for an event Monday, and stopped by Reynolds Coliseum on Tuesday to see the building for the first time since its renovation.
"This is a mecca. This is a shrine. I can't imagine doing anything to harm it. It's here to be respected and absorbed and just paid tribute to," Wood said. "I saw David Thompson play on this court back in 1975, and it's just it's holy to me. I can't imagine doing anything to damage it."
Sophomore Hayden Hartman took photos of some of the Wolfpack Hall of Fame display cases on Tuesday as part of preparations for a scavenger hunt. She expressed disappointment that the some, if not all, of the suspects are fellow students.
"You would think it would be another school's student or that it would be someone else behind it. I can't believe it was our own students that would do that," Hartman said. "It's crazy. It's really sad, because they have all (this history) on display here, so it's sad that they've ruined something that was special here."
The N.C. State women's basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics teams compete at Reynolds Coliseum.
