HCP newspapers removed from Great Scot

HILLSBORO - A woman was caught on security videotape removing all copies of The Highland County Press from Great Scot supermarket on West Main Street in Hillsboro Friday afternoon.

At 3:42 p.m. Friday, a woman walked into the grocery store, made an immediate left turn toward copies of the Oct. 10 Highland County Press and lifted each of the three stacks of papers from the store copies. The woman then left the store and was seen getting into an SUV and leaving. She had Ohio license plates and a partial number has been identified.

Great Scot Manager Ed Bayless showed the video to Highland County Press Publisher Rory Ryan on Friday.

"It is quite clear to all of us who have watched the surveillance video that this woman's only intent upon entering the store was the removal of our newspapers," Ryan said. "She did no shopping. She made no purchases. She simply walked up to our newspapers and took all of them. It is my sincere hope that this woman acted independently and just enjoys our paper — and only our paper — so much she wanted to share it with her friends. However, my experience is that that's probably not the case."

Mr. Bayless told Ryan he would provide a CD of the video. In the video, the woman is clearly seen removing the papers. The video also captured a very clear image of the woman's face.

"I'm a fairly reasonable individual," Ryan said. "If this woman will simply return our newspapers, either to Great Scot or to The Highland County Press office on Main Street, I will forgive and forget. If she does not, however, I will publish the video on our Web site and publish her photograph on the front page of our newspaper.

"Our employees work far too hard to have their efforts stolen," Ryan said. "And although this is a free newspaper, I consider that woman's action to be nothing less than theft. I know many publishers who have free newspapers and all of them would feel the same way. This also is, in my mind, a deceitful, if not criminal, act against our advertisers. They trust us to place a certain amount of newspapers in the public's hands each week. We cannot do that if individuals like this woman steal our publication."

Ryan said he has other information on this incident, but refused to elaborate.

On Thursday, Oct. 8, The Highland County Press published an online story asking all of its venders to keep an eye on their allotted copies of The Highland County Press. One day later, all copies at one of the newspaper's largest outlets were removed.

Ryan said that would be an incredible coincidence.

"Unless this woman comes forward and apologizes, once we have the CD images, it is my intent to take them to law enforcement throughout southwest Ohio," Ryan said. "That is in addition to publishing her photograph on our front page. The choice is hers."