The Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) arrested an individual on Monday for allegedly possessing property stolen over several days from research labs in the Shriram Center for Bioengineering & Chemical Engineering. 

The stolen lab items include micropipettes and camera equipment worth thousands of dollars. The suspect was an employee of a third-party service provider tasked with removing biowaste from Shriram’s various research labs, whose role gave them access to certain university buildings.

Researchers working in the labs on Shriram’s third floor began to notice missing lab equipment early last week. 

“It started with Mike Jewett’s lab. It was these really nice multichannel [pipettes] that were getting stolen — repeatedly, even after they were getting replaced,” said Ryan Kong, a fifth-year chemical engineering Ph.D. student working in Shriram. The INTEGRA Biosciences multichannel pipettes Kong referred to can cost upwards of $1,000 each.

Several Shriram researchers, who spoke to The Daily on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation, agreed the thefts primarily impacted the Jewett lab, though neighboring labs were also affected.

“We noticed it with our lab when I came in … and saw that our pipettes, [which] are stored right at the entrance on this really nice carousel — that entire thing went missing,” Kong said. “It was a one-time experience for us, but I know there are some labs that got hit multiple times.”

The Daily reached out to SUDPS for comment.

SUDPS recovered some of the stolen lab equipment at the time of the arrest and some later in the day; University spokesperson Luisa Rapport wrote to The Daily. 

“The case is still being investigated,” Rapport wrote.