By Liz Ciocher
News Editor
The Signal and Campus Police work together on a weekly basis to inform the campus community about crime on and around campus. All records given to The Signal are public records and do not contain personal information. Some information provided may be triggering for some students.
The following incidents involve both students and individuals of the Ewing community, but have all occurred on campus. They are listed in chronological order.
March 2: Stairwell fire alarm and abandonment
Campus Police arrived at the fifth stairwell on the fourth floor of Lot 7 around 10 p.m. after the emergency strobe lights and a fire alarm was activated. Upon their arrival, there were no students or people present in the stairwell, but the smell of burnt cannabis was apparent to the officers.
Tobacco leaves and tobacco packaging were found scattered along the stairwell’s floor, but there was no cannabis among the litter. After the area was cleared and secured, Campus Police reset the alarm and strobe lights.
March 2: Norsworthy cooking mishap
Campus Police was dispatched to Norsworthy after the building’s fire alarm and strobe lights were activated. The residents were evacuated, and Norsworthy’s fire panel pointed the alarm to a resident’s room. Upon entering the room, officers observed an open microwave and a trash can with burnt food in it.
Residents were allowed back in after the Ewing Fire Department reset the alarm and determined its activation to be due to ‘careless cooking.’
March 3: Townhouse East fire
At approximately 9:46 p.m., Townhouses East were evacuated after the smoke alarms were activated. Campus Police arrived at the scene to discover no signs of smoke or fire, but detected the odor of cannabis.
With no further incident of danger, fire personnel reset the system and the students then reoccupied the building.
March 14: Pretend professor and research email scam
The College’s Chief Security Officer Matthew Cesari sent out a campus-wide email advising students of a possible scam alert. Around 7:30 p.m. on March 14, a student reported to Campus Police his interaction with the scammer.
The scammer was pretending to be an economics professor at the College and had a College logo in the header of their email. The student noticed multiple grammatical errors in the email, as well as questions asked by the “professor” as suspicious and did not provide a response.
The student did not suffer any monetary losses, and the case of the scammer remains open.
March 20: Pretend professor scores
A student made a report to Campus Police after she had a similar interaction with the scammers listed in the previous report — this time facing monetary losses.
The scammers sent two images of checks to the student and asked her to deposit them. The first check was written for $870.09 and the second for $432.85. After she began the depositing process, the scammer instructed her to quickly purchase two $500 prepaid Walmart mastercards and send them the card number, expiration date and security code.
The checks the student received were still pending at the time of the Walmart card purchase, resulting in the student using her own funds for the cards. The student’s father provided the funds for the second gift card, as there was not yet enough money in her account.
The checks were proven to be fraudulent by the bank and the student was not reimbursed for the transaction. The scammers requested additional Walmart cards, but the student denied the request.
With a total of $1,004 stolen from the student, Campus Police provided her with a victim notification form and was told to contact her bank’s fraud department. The scammer has been blocked from the student’s contact.
March 21: Travers elevators criminal mischief
At around 9 a.m., elevator maintenance representatives contacted Campus Police to report a damaged cable connecting to the door of Elevator 1, which would need to be replaced for the doors to open and close properly. The repair cost approximately $40.
The representative also reported to Campus Police footprints observed on the interior door of Elevator 3, which did not cause damage but did express concern from the representatives. They said if kicking and stepping on the doors continued, the elevator could get stuck and it would cost the College a lot of money.
Elevator 1 was under repair for over an hour to replace the faulty cable.
March 22: Impermissable parking in Lot 3
Campus Police issued a parking boot to a white Honda Civic that had three outstanding parking tickets. The vehicle did not have the proper permit to park, resulting in the three tickets totaling $125.
In addition to the boot, the Civic was issued two additional tickets, one for parking without a permit and another for boot removal. The outstanding ticket count was raised to five, bringing the total fee to $225.
March 25: Three tire vehicle
At 11:35 a.m., a member of Building Services called Campus Police to report a car parked in lot 13 with only three tires.
Upon inspection, Campus Police noticed the passenger side tire missing from the vehicle, with remnants of the sidewalls still on the rim of the wheel. There were also marks on the ground consistent with the width of the wheel’s rim, which trailed back to the main roadway, indicating the vehicle was driven into the garage with the tire missing.
Campus Police notified the student who was the owner of the vehicle with a safety concern.
Surveillance footage showed the vehicle arriving at the parking garage on March 19 at approximately 3:05 a.m., with its hazard lights on and the tire missing.
Since the incident, Campus Police has not seen the vehicle in the lot.
March 27: Criminal pickup basketball players
A Campus Police officer was doing his regular patrolling when he noticed a Dodge Charger parked in Lot 12 at 1:10 a.m., an unusual hour for vehicles in the faculty parking lot. The officer recognized the vehicle from previous run ins of trespassing on the school’s basketball court and ran the license plate to confirm the person’s identity.
After making the confirmation in the Mobile Data Terminal, the officer was notified the individual had an active extraditable warrant out of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
In search of the individual, the officer and backup entered the basketball court in Packer Hall. Inside, multiple individuals, who were not students, were on the court playing basketball. The officer was able to identify the owner of the Dodge Charger from the identification photo of the Mobile Data Terminal and asked for his name. The individual provided a contorted version of his legal name and headed for the exit. He also denied being the vehicle’s owner before the officer announced he was under arrest.
The other individuals evacuated after the officers told them they were trespassing on campus property, and the owner of the Dodge Charger was brought into custody. He was fingerprinted and brought to the Mercer County Correctional Center.
