A Gardner resident found an intruder sitting on the floor in the middle of a friend’s room at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The man quickly left the room, ran down the hall and escaped the building before the ACU Police arrived on the scene.
Madison Brown, freshman interior design major from Frisco, was going to borrow an art supply from a friend on the first floor of Gardner Residence Hall. She said the door was unlocked and she was surprised to find a man in the room.
“I just saw a short man, dressed in all black sweat clothes, squatting in the middle of the room, looking toward the trash can and window,” she said. “He stood up, quietly apologized and left. Then I heard him sprinting down the hall.”
Taylor Brown, freshman advertising and public relations major from Southlake, lives in the room. When Madison texted her to tell her about the man in her room, she left another friend’s room upstairs to go back to her room. She was in the hallway when she saw a middle-aged Hispanic man run past her.
“I started jogging after him just because I didn’t know what he was doing or who he was,” she said. “Then I saw Taylor and she said that it was him.”
The two girls went to the central, west and east lobbies in Gardner to ask the desk managers if the man had left through those doors. None of the desk managers had seen the man they described.
“Everyone thought we were making it up at first,” Madison said. “Then we heard that the police were there.”
The girls went back to Jordan’s hall while the ACU police conducted a full investigation of the residence hall. The officers checked every room in Gardner but never saw the man again.
“The police are doing a lot on this case,” Taylor said. “We gave a statement on Wednesday and they’ve been in touch with us since.”
ACU Police Chief Jimmy Ellison said all available police responded to the incident as soon as it was reported.
“There was a small delay before we got the call,” Ellison said. “It’s imperative that when people see suspicious activity that they call us immediately.”
Ellison said the department thoroughly investigated the entire facility and never found a man that matched the girls’ description.
“No one else saw this individual in the hall, or exiting or entering it,” he said. “We assume he had already left the building before we arrived. We don’t have any further leads.”
Dr. John Delony, assistant dean of residence life, sent out an email to all the residence directors to pass on to students late Tuesday night with news of the intruder. He reminded residents to keep safety as a top priority.
“Always lock your hall rooms, never prop open exterior door, close your windows when you are not in your room and never let strangers into the building,” Delony said in the email. “Always report suspicious activity to ACU PD and to your residence director.”
