The USTALERT system sent out an email at 1 p.m. on Feb. 2 notifying the St. Thomas community of a burglary that occurred in Dowling Hall dormitory on Feb. 1.
The report reads that at 2:40 p.m. on Feb. 1, a student reported that an unidentified male allegedly entered her room and began rummaging through her drawers. The student confronted the suspect who then claimed to be a St. Thomas student. He returned a charger that he had removed from the drawer and then exited the building. The student then contacted Public Safety.
Public Safety Director Dan Meuwissen said the alert was sent out the next day as Public Safety was still in the process of gathering information.
The suspect was able to access Dowling Hall, which is secured by card access, by entering as someone was leaving the building. Public Safety said it was clear he was waiting for an opportunity to enter the building.
Meuwissen said that after the alert was sent out, several other students reported encounters with the suspect, including him entering their rooms.
“Since we posted the alert, we have received several other calls that this guy made effort to enter other rooms in Dowling,” Meuwissen said. “So it’s isolated in that it was a single incident, but he did enter other rooms.”
First-year students Emma Repka and Lindsey Sandison, residents in Dowling Hall, were talking in their room Tuesday afternoon when they thought they heard someone try and open their door. They thought it was one of their friends until they went to check.
“Lindsey came back in and was like, ‘There’s a black guy with a black duffel bag that looked empty, and he keeps looking at me walking down the hallway,’ and then we got the email this morning and we were like, ‘Oh,’” Repka said.
Sandison and Repka called and reported the information they had on the suspect to Public Safety.
“Public Safety told us even if we are in our room to keep it locked,” Sandison said. “Normally, we didn’t lock our door if both of us were in here. Now, we are locking our door.”
Haley Weibolt, a first-year student and Dowling Hall resident, said the suspect also entered her room while she was there.
“He opened the door slowly, and I was sitting at my desk. I kind of leaned back, and he took a step and saw me, and we made eye contact and stuff and he mumbled something and left. I don’t know what he said,” Weibolt said.
Video review shows that the suspect immediately left campus after the encounter mentioned in the USTALERT email.
The email describe the suspect as “a black male, approximately 5′ to 6′, approximately 180 pounds, 25 to 35 years of age, shaved head, thin framed glasses, thin black mustache, wearing a black jacket, a black stocking cap, black pants, black belt, cell phone case on hip, black boots, and carrying a black duffle bag with white Air Jordan logo on it. The suspect smelled of heavy smoke.”
Public Safety advises students to lock their rooms, and if someone tailgates in and they do not want to confront them, they should call the Public Safety emergency line. Meuwissen said they will not be increasing security in Dowling Hall but will rely on staff and students to report incidents like this if they happen.
“There is not an increased security in the dorms so we rely more on just our staff for that,” Meuwissen said. “That is why we appreciate this message getting out in as many different ways as it can. Students and community members have to call us when suspicious people or activity is observed.”
Public Safety does not currently have any leads for identifying the suspect.
Anyone with information regarding this crime is urged to call Public Safety at 651-962-5100, or the St. Paul Police Department at 651-291-1111.
The Department of Residence Life did not immediately respond to requests for comment.