A woman living in French Hall woke up early Tuesday morning to find an uninvited male stranger in her room, the Department of Safety and Security said last night.
The unidentified man apparently entered the wrong room, apologized to the sleeping woman and quickly left her room, Lauren Cummings '72, a Safety and Security investigator, said in a BlitzMail message.
Cummings stated in his electronic mail message that the man entered the woman's unlocked dorm room at about 2:30 in the morning of Nov. 2. Quoting from the victim's exact statement to Safety and Security, Cummings stated in his blitz, "The sleeping occupant awoke to find a light on and a male, who said: 'Debbie? Debbie? ... Oh shit, I have the wrong room.' The male then ran out of the room."
Cummings' blitz was sent out in response to the flurry of electronic mail messages circulated widely around campus over the weekend warning women of three alleged incidents of a man entering without invitation into a woman's dorm room while she was sleeping.
According to the BlitzMail messages, these incidents occurred in the River Cluster dormitories during the past week.
As of yesterday evening, no other incidents of uninvited entry was reported to Safety and Security.
The fact that only one incident was reported conflicts with the allegations in the BlitzMail messages, which refer to three separate incidents. The electronic messages were spread widely throughout campus beginning Saturday night and continuing into Sunday morning.
Rick Adams, public information manager of the College News Service, said the Safety and Security report of the Nov. 2 incident looks to be nothing more than a simple case of someone in the wrong room.
Cummings' blitz also said that if there was in fact more than one incident, the victims of these incidents should "come forward so that we can try to establish a pattern, conduct a thorough investigation, and hopefully identify suspect(s)." The blitz also requested that anyone with information regarding these or other incidents report it promptly.
Residents of the River, especially French, said they have been more cautious since the rumors of the incidents began circulating. Wendy Fleske '98, who lives in French, said, "I'd say that people have become more cautious and they lock their doors now, especially at night."
In March of 1992, a freshman woman was sexually assaulted at knife point in her dorm room when a stranger entered her unlocked room in the early morning.
