Twenty-two-year-old University of Wisconsin student Justin Peltzer was released on signature bond at a hearing Monday morning after allegedly entering the Sterling Hall office of a physics professor with the intent to steal a final exam last December.

Professor Lynn Knutson said Peltzer was not a student of his class, and he suspects the test was being stolen for someone else. The UW Police Department worked hard to determine who entered his office and have done an “outstanding” job, Knutson added.

“Students have to realize how serious this is,” Knutson said. “It is taken very seriously by people on campus. It isn’t worth it.”

According to Knutson, the Dean of Students Office deals with these kinds of issues as well as the police department. The “99 percent of students” who are being honest in class need to be protected, he added.

Knutson told his class of the incident before they took the final exam, and he said he suspects his students will be happy to learn the authorities are taking care of the case.

Peltzer said he made the “biggest mistake of [his] life” that night, and he “deeply regrets” his actions. He said he is sorry for the trouble he has caused the university and Knutson.

“I put my relationships, dignity and academic status at risk,” Peltzer said. “I also hope that others can learn from my mistake when even considering committing the smallest case of academic misconduct.”

Knutson said he does not believe this was the only incident his office was broken into.

“There had been two previous exams [that semester], and the first one, when I came in the morning of that exam there was something weird on my computer desk, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Knutson said. “But the second exam, clearly someone had been in my office and looked at the exam.”

According to Knutson, it was not a coincidence he entered his office at approximately midnight before the final exam last December. Knutson said he expected someone to be on his computer. When Knutson entered, he found an intruder sitting at his computer, according to the criminal complaint.

“Someone had tried to do this before and maybe successfully did get access to the exams, but that person is going to get caught, too,” Knutson said.

According to the criminal complaint, Peltzer said a friend, who he refused to identify, asked him to steal the physics exam, but Knutson walked in on him before he was able to retrieve the exam.

Knutson said he suspects Peltzer or other potential suspects were able to enter his first-floor office through an open window that could have been unlocked.

Burglary of a “room within a building,” a Class F felony, can lead to a maximum penalty of $25,000 and an imprisonment of no more than 12 years and six months, according to the criminal complaint.

Peltzer said he hopes to make amends with the school and Knutson.

“It just isn’t worth it in the long run even though it is rather tempting at the time,” Peltzer said.