Two University of Kentucky students were arrested for allegedly trying to steal an upcoming statistics exam after the professor decided to work late.
Police say Henry Lynch II and Troy Kiphuth, both 21, broke into the professor’s office by crawling through an air duct that led to an opening in the ceiling, where the two descended into the office, the Daily Mail reported.
Lynch and Kiphuth were cited by university police for third-degree burglary, a felony. The university police referred the case to Fayette County Circuit Court.
University spokesman Jay Blanton told the Lexington Herald Leader that statistics professor John Cain left his office in the Multidisciplinary Science Building on Rose Street in Lexington at approximately midnight Wednesday to get food.
Once he returned at around 1:30 a.m., he tried to unlock the door, but found it was barricaded from the inside. Cain warned those inside that he would send for the authorities, when two men emerged from the office and ran away.
Lynch confessed to police that he broke into Cain’s office via the air ducts in the ceiling and opened the door from the inside to let Kiphuth in.
Authorities said the student confessed to attempting to steal an exam earlier in the evening and successfully stealing an exam from the same office earlier in the semester, but made it clear to police that he did not distribute the answers to his classmates.
WKYT reports that Lynch and Kiphuth will answer to the charges before a judge on June 26.
Blanton said the Office of Student Conduct will also conduct a separate review to determine if the students will face punishment at the university.
“The Office of Student Conduct takes this matter very seriously and it will be reviewed extensively to make a determination and we will act accordingly,” Blanton said.