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Nearly 2,500 copies of the Nov. 20 issue of The Express were returned to newsstands five days after they had been stolen.

According to Los Rios Police, most of the Nov. 20 Express copies were taken on the day they were published, hours after they were placed on newsracks. After a police search, the newspapers were found by a journalism student in classroom Fine Arts 10 on Nov. 25, and returned to the Express newsroom.

Police said the subject of a Nov. 20 personality profile article (the Express is not repeating the profile subject’s name because of safety concerns) and several other people entered the Express office around 2:20 p.m. The article subject and others with him— some of whom are members of the Brown Issues, a campus club that advocates for Latino issues — expressed concern over his safety because of the article’s subhead, which identified him as an ex-gang member, and asked that the newspapers be pulled from the newsstands.

According to the police report, all newspapers were gone between the time the newspapers were first distributed at 11:15 a.m. and the time the concerned parties entered the Express office at 2:20 p.m.

On Nov. 25, while attending a communication class in FA 10, an Express staff writer said he spotted the missing newspapers. Express editors were alerted and retrieved the stolen newspapers. The classroom is also used as a meeting place for the Brown Issues club. The stolen copies were found hidden in a black storage area of the classroom.

Because of the possible threat of gang violence on campus, Express staff pulled the section containing the article in question, which resulted in the loss of four pages. After the changes to each retrieved newspaper were made, they were returned to the stands Nov. 25. All content but the article in question has beenreprinted in this issue.

Express editors filed a report with Los Rios Police the day after the theftto report the crime under California Penal Code 490.76. The code states that stealing more than 25 copies of any newspaper, even a free newspaper, is a punishable criminal infraction. The infraction deprives readers of the right to read the newspaper, an infringement of the freedom of press guaranteed by the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.

“Freedom of the press is one of the cornerstones of this country. “ Express editor in chief Cecilio Padilla said. “Regardless of the circumstances, the theft of our newspapers cannot go unpunished.”

The circumstances surrounding the theft of the newspapers and suspects responsible are under investigation by the LRPD.