Multiple female residents at U Club Townhomes on Marion Pugh reportedly awoke to find a strange man in their rooms early Wednesday morning.
Lt. Charles Fleeger, spokesperson for the College Station Police Department, said accounts of trespassing Wednesday morning at two U Club apartments were reported to police. Fleeger said residents described the intruder as an African American male and no incidents of theft or assault were noted in reports.
While the CSPD initially believes the reports are linked, Fleeger said CSPD cannot confirm whether or not the crimes are related until the perpetrator is determined.
U Club representatives did not return repeated requests for comment.
Grace Neill, a resident who reported trespassing to CSPD, said the sound of a intruder tripping over things in her room woke her up in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“He wasn’t aggressive or anything, he was just standing in my room,” Neill said. “I don’t know if he was watching me sleep — he was just standing there at the end of my bed.”
Neill said the man responded with a slurred name when she asked who he was. After a short back-and-forth, she escorted him out.
Once he left, Neill said she woke up the other residents in the apartment and called the police in the morning.
“Scary as it was, I’m trying not to be so paranoid, because I find it’s hard to go to sleep at night,” Neill said. “I’m scared there is going to be a man standing there when I wake up.”
Lindsey Gawlik, another resident who reported trespassing and the managing editor for The Battalion, said she came across the man around 2 a.m. when she went to her apartment’s kitchen for a glass of water.
Gawlik said the man, who entered the room as she poured herself a glass, stated he was friends with one of the apartment’s residents, referring to the resident by name, and asking for a glass of water. Gawlik said she told him to leave after he asked to sleep on the couch. She said the man appeared sober and at ease.
“I heard him coming down the stairs and figured it was just one of my roommates,” Gawlik said. “I asked him who he was, and he said he was my roommate’s friend and was taking care of her because she was drunk upstairs.”
Gawlik said she didn’t realize anything suspicious about the man until her housemate later told her a man was in her room.
“My roommate told me there had been a guy in her room, and she had woken up to him walking around making noise,” Gawlik said. “She said he reached for her, and when she asked who he was, he told her he was in the wrong room.”
Gawlik said they realized he was a intruder after hearing about the incident with Neill and discovering the resident the man named wasn’t even home the night of the incident.
“When we heard about it happening to Grace, we called our roommate to ask if her friend had been over last night,” Gawlik said. “She said not only did she not know him but she wasn’t even home last night.”
After realizing the man was a trespasser, Gawlik said she reported the incident to the police. Gawlik said she hopes the intruder is caught soon.
“We’ve all been staying at friends houses. None of us feels safe in our own apartment now,” Gawlik said. “When I’m going to sleep now I think every noise is someone trying to break in.”
In the wake of these incidents, Fleeger said patrol officers have been notified of the reports.
Fleeger advises all residents to lock doors, communicate with fellow residents regularly and to call the police at the earliest sign of suspicious activity.
“He was over there for apparently at least a significant amount of time to go into multiple apartments, so please be watchful for suspicious activity and to contact police immediately,” Fleeger said.
