Band's Big Bass Drum Stolen; Five Brown Students Arrested

Five Brown students were arrested yesterday by Massachusetts State Police in Framingham and charged with the theft of the Harvard band's big brass drum.

The students were released and will be arraigned in Dedham District Court this morning.

Shepard Rainie '74 said last night that the five students walked into the band room yesterday afternoon and asked to speak to Sam Coppersmith '76, band librarian and the coordinator of the band's trip to Brown for Saturday's football game.

One of the students said he was from ABC television and asked Coppersmith for permission to take pictures of the drum at Soldier's Field for publicity of the Harvard-Brown game.

After showing an ABC press card, Rainie said, the ABC impersonator asked Coppersmith and conductor Thomas Everett to help the other four Brown students, who claimed to be Crimson reporters, load the drum into their truck.

Rainie said when they got to Soldier's Field, the Brown students told Coppersmith and Everett they were from Yale and they were taking the drum to New Haven.

Coppersmith called the Harvard police and the Brown students were apprehended en route back to Brown by the State Police a short time later.

"Talk about getting duped," Rainie said last night. "They even helped the guys load the drum. I just can't believe it."