Intruder Enters Currier House

An unknown man meandered through the halls of Currier House Friday evening, knocked on students’ doors and asked them for money.

The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) responded to a report made around 6:10 p.m. that the man, unaffiliated with Harvard, had been soliciting students living in the Gilbert wing of Currier for money.

“We searched for him,” said Steven G. Catalano, HUPD spokesman. “But we were not able to locate the individual.”

Third-floor Currier resident Lauren R. Foote ’07, one of the students who reported the trespasser, described the suspect as a thin, tall, white male—unshaven and scruffy-looking—who wore a long black T-shirt and blue jeans.

“I wasn’t really concerned,” said Foote, who found police already downstairs responding to a call made by a second-floor resident. “Obviously, it was bizarre. He wasn’t threatening or dangerous. I mean, he was freaked out when I came out.”

She said that the man told her he was looking for her next-door neighbor, and asked for two dimes and a nickel in order to make a phone call.

Foote said the man then inquired about the location of the cafeteria and whether it was open before apologizing and leaving.

“I was pretty sure he was homeless,” Foote said.

Catalano said such occurrences are not out of the ordinary.

“In the beginning of the year, and even during the course of the year, we will get calls in buildings about people soliciting and asking for money,” Catalano said. “[Students] should call us when people are acting in a suspicious manner.”

—Staff writer Robin M. Peguero can be reached at peguero@fas.harvard.edu.