Last Saturday night a non-University person was warned for trespassing after his belongings were found under the porch of 96 Lawn Ave. According to Daniel Heller ’06 who lives in 96 Lawn, the man, only identified as “Timothy,” knocked on the door of the house in the evening and inquired about the area.

“He said he was looking for a place to stay and he liked the area, so I gave him the name of a landlord we had checked out,” Heller said. “I thought he was a grad student. Our housing conversation went on but we weren’t making any progress and then he said, ‘In all honesty, I’m not looking to pay. I’m looking to squat.’”

According to Heller, Timothy, a clean-cut 6’2“ African American male, made references to the house’s basement. The door to the basement had been broken since the students moved in, and an old mattress had been left there. Timothy’s familiarity with these facts led the housemates to believe he had already been down there. Timothy then left and Heller called Public Safety to report the incident.

Public Safety and Physical Plant arrived within minutes to secure the area. While walking around the premises and searching for any signs of a break-in, a public safety officer discovered items under the porch of the house.

”He came out with what looked to be a number of articles of clothing, a sleeping bag, a huge sack which he opened with more clothing in it, a camping stove, boxes of matches, Sudafed, propane, and rubbing alcohol,“ Heller said. ”The Public Safety officer looked at us and said, ‘This is how you make crystal meth.’“

Heller later added that he had no reason to believe Timothy ever made crystal meth in the house.

Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer stressed that the items found did not constitute all of the necessary ingredients for making methamphetamine and could not be called a ”meth lab.“

”He had some stuff that was a little bit dangerous,“ Meyer said. ”He had some cough syrup and stuff like that. We’re sort of making a lot of conjectures about what this person was up to without any real evidence.“

Public Safety then called the Middletown Police Department, but before the police arrived, Timothy returned to 96 Lawn. When the police arrived, they found him there but failed to find anything suspicious on his person. Timothy did acknowledge that he had several burglary charges on his record.

”He had previously had a record for burglary,“ Meyer said. ”I don’t see him as a threat [to the community] at this point. We’re mainly concerned with violence and threats to the community. I hate to say it, but college campuses are a place where people who don’t have a place to stay gravitate.“

According to Heller, the police continued to look through Timothy’s things and found pants and a t-shirt with the word ”Police“ on it in his bag. When asked if he worked or had ever worked for the police department, Timothy responded, ”Sometimes.“

Eventually, the police officers let Timothy go with a warning for trespassing.

”I think Public Safety handled the case really well,“ said Julia Fox ’06. ”There were three of them there, and they made me feel more comfortable about the situation. But the [Public Safety Awareness] write-up in the Argus said there was a guy that was warned for trespassing, and I think maybe there should have been more than that.“