Although the Oxford College zebra-nappers remain on the lam, some lame-duck sophomores are pitching in to cover prank-related expenses.

Quick backstory: On April 23, someone — students, campus officials believe — kidnapped a pet zebra named Barcode from a Newton County farm, paraded him through the woods in the pre-dawn darkness and deposited him on the third story of the two-year school's Seney Hall.

Joseph Moon/Special (ENLARGE)

A zebra was discovered on the third floor of Seney Hall in the Oxford campus of Emory University.

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Within a few hours, animal control officers sent the animal back home dazed but unharmed. School officials said it was part of a long-standing prank of students — usually graduating sophomores — placing large animals in Seney Hall. They promised to punish the animal snatchers — if they could find them.

Now a group of students is selling T-shirts that read: "I was there when the zebra took over Seney Hall."

Sales as of Friday morning: $2,150.

That's about enough to cover damages associated with removing the 800-pound animal and the "zebra droppings" he left behind, Oxford College Dean Stephen Bowen said.

Selling T-shirts was "a thoughtful response of students who saw a need and took initiative to meet it," said Bowen, who bought one of the black-and-white frocks.

In an anonymous e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a day after the story broke, one of the purported thieves — who referred to himself only as "John Emory" — said it was all in good fun.

"There was no malice whatsoever," he wrote. "It may have been one of the greatest pranks ever pulled off in [the] history of American academia."

Indeed, Bowen said it's unlikely the zebra-nappers will ever be caught. They will probably walk in Saturday's graduation ceremony and leave campus undetected — with quite a tale to tell.