Trophy Caper Crosses Line -- Rose Bowl Trophy Found In B.C.

The 1992 Rose Bowl trophy is back on the University of Washington campus today after a prank that drew headlines on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border.

"I hope they make those kids pay for all the police time and effort," said Washington Coach Don James last night, hours after the trophy was recovered by Royal Canadian Mount Police on the University of British Columbia campus.

James said he didn't favor criminal charges against the UBC engineering students who stole it. "I'm not interested in anything like that," he said.

The RCMP, UW Police Department and UW athletic department both said prosecution is unlikely.

The $3,000 trophy was stolen from a locked trophy case as a stunt by UBC students Monday night. It was proudly displayed yesterday at the annual meeting of the Engineering Undergraduate Society on the Vancouver campus.

Later, after engineers had called Vancouver-area media to invite them to view the trophy, officers from the campus detachment of the RCMP arrived and took it without incident.

The RCMP had been tipped off about the trophy through the Crime Stoppers network. The national non-profit organization had announced on Seattle radio stations that it was offering up to a $1,000 reward for the return of the trophy. Someone in Canada was listening.

The unidentified person called Seattle-King County Crime Stoppers, . That information was relayed to UW police, who relayed it to the RCMP, according to Scott Kimerer, regional coordinator for Seattle-King County Crime Stoppers.

Kimerer said a reward will be paid. "We offered the reward for the return of the trophy and we'll stick by that," he said.

RCMP officers handed the trophy over to UW police at the border last night. UW officers planned to keep it at headquarters overnight then turn it over to the athletic department today.

"This was a pretty good stunt," one unidentified engineer told The Vancouver Sun. "It's one of my personal favorites - right next to 1988 when we had the lights on the Lions Gate Bridge blinking in Morse code. That was one of my favorites because I was the one who did it."

The week's first stunt was Monday, when engineers floated a Volkswagen Beetle in a Stanley Park pond.

Rick Hiebert, a reporter for The Ubyssey, the UBC campus newspaper, said last night that engineers told him at least three of them stole the trophy. The pranksters told reporters they hid in a stairwell and waited for everyone to leave the building.

Chip Lydum, assistant to Athletic Director Barbara Hedges, said because of the theft, "We'll probably take some precautions."