HSA did not have enough refrigerators to service all applicants this fall. At one time the waiting list held 180 names, Pollack said. The agency rents refrigerators for about $50 per year, the fee varying according to the model.

No HSA official contacted this weekend knew whether HSA was insured against refrigerator theft, and none would estimate potential replacement costs.

However, a former manager of the refrigerator agency, Edward N. Bothfeld '76-4, said that a new counter-refrigerator with five cubic feet of space, comparable to many HSA models, costs about $135.

Possibility of Theft

One source close to the refrigerator agency said that at least some of the missing units must have been stolen from the HSA warehouse. "It's awful hard just to lose 200 refrigerators," the source said.

Daniel Del Vecchio '77, general manager at HSA, said that if refrigerators had been stolen from the HSA warehouse, the thief would not have necessarily been an employee with a key. "During the day you can get in pretty easily," Del Vecchio said last week.

Several HSA officials maintained that the 200 refrigerators could be forgotten in House storage areas or be sitting in dormitory suites without current contracts. HSA does not remove refrigerators from suites each spring, but hopes instead the next year's occupants will decide to rent the refrigerators they find in their rooms.

Two HSA officials said the agency could simply have lost track of which suites still possessed refrigerators.

"It sounds like a lack of good clerical bookkeeping," Del Vecchio said last week.

In early October HSA fired an assistant manager of its refrigerator agency, Fred Wei-Han Houn '79, apparently for not properly fulfilling his responsibilities within the division. Houn charged at the time that HSA had acted "unfairly, unethically and malignantly" and said he might appeal his firing.

Yesterday Pollack said that the firing was "unjust" and that Houn and HSA had come to a "reconciliation." Houn's dismissal was only partly related to the case of the missing refrigerators, Pollack said.

Pollack said the death of a close friend of Martin, the refrigerator agency's manager, at the beginning of the school year had taken Martin away from his job at a crucial time and left Houn with too many responsibilities. It was then that the agency fell behind in paperwork, Pollack said.

The notice HSA employees left on refrigerators in dormitory rooms said the units would be "removed very shortly" with "no advance notice" if payment was not received "immediately."

Lawton said he did not see the notice before granting approval for HSA's search, but said that if he had framed the message, he "would have been a little more diplomatic."

Del Vecchio said last week that HSA would probably ask Lawton to allow them to enter suites to remove unrented refrigerators.