‘Creepy’ male subject

At approximately 11:35 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27, campus police was dispatched to the McIntyre Library in reference to a check person. The communication center received information on a white male subject in a red sweatshirt who was making women feel uncomfortable by staring at them.

When the officers arrived at the library, a male subject — who was known from prior contacts with campus police — wearing large black sunglasses over his eyes, a red zip-up sweatshirt and gray sweatpants stepped out of the elevator and began walking toward them. According to the report, he had pink and black flip-flops on and was extremely dirty.

The officer walked toward the male subject and could see that his eyes beneath his sunglasses were racing back and forth and he would not directly look at the officer.

The subject would not tell the officers his name. When the officer explained they knew him from prior contacts, the subject began saying the police were harassing him.

According to the report, the officers made contact with the complainant, a male student, who said he had received a text message from his girlfriend saying the subject was walking around the fourth and fifth floors of the library staring at people as they studied.

The girlfriend told her boyfriend she felt uncomfortable, so he called campus police to report the strange behavior.

The female librarian said the subject’s backpack was in the lost and found because she had found it abandoned in an aisle.

According to the report, it appeared that the subject’s behavior was unusual but not threatening. The officers told the subject he was making people uncomfortable and requested he exit the building for the night.

The subject collected his backpack, exited the building and started walking toward the intersection of Park Avenue and Garfield Avenue.

After the subject left, the officer spoke with the librarian again, when she said the library has been getting complaints all week about the subject due to his strange behavior. She said the subject was watering the library’s plants.  

This was not the only case involving this male subject this week.

At approximately 12:50 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29, a female student arrived at the campus police department wanting to report a suspicious male she had seen on campus during the past few weeks. She said she was not threatened in any way by the male but noticed he seemed out of place and possibly had personality issues.

According to the report, the male subject made her feel uneasy.

The female student said she saw the male walking on Putnam Drive near the McPhee steps a couple of weeks earlier around 8:30 a.m. and was acting in a way that caught her attention.

Approximately one week later, the female saw the subject wearing the same clothes and walking across the footbridge. She said he has not tried making contact with her but his behavior made her question him.

According to the report, the female had also seen the male at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28, on the fifth floor of the library. The male came and laid down on the couch near the table she was studying at and was talking to himself in a normal volume and using profanity.

She said the subject was using a lot of “F-bombs” and was talking to himself for at least 15 minutes before she finally left the area.

The female described the subject to be wearing a red sweatshirt and big black sunglasses.

The officer told the female student he believed this male subject was the same subject reported earlier, an individual the department has had numerous cases and contacts with.

The male subject is currently allowed to be on campus and has not recently committed any offenses or violated any laws the department is aware of.

Scam Emails

At 11 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 29, a campus officer met with a female student in reference to a possible job scam she had received via email.

She told the officer she received an email on her UW-Eau Claire email at 1:31 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 25, from a male subject regarding a job. There was a link in the message directing her to a website where there was a registration area for entering personal information.

According to the report, the female put in her personal information including her residence hall address, cell phone number, personal and school email address. She did not enter her birthday or social security number.

The female student received a confirmation email saying she completed the registration form.

After completing and submitting the registration form, she received a phone call from the male subject who sent her the email. The subject claimed to be a famous artist and was looking for a personal assistant. He was hiring the student on the spot.

On Friday, Sept. 29, the student received another email, this time from a different email address and received on her Gmail account. The email message said the student would be sent a check for $2,270.45 and that she should deposit the check into her bank account. Once the funds were transferred to her account, she should deduct $300 for her weekly salary.  

According to the report, the student said she became “leery” of this job and believed it could be a scam.

Prior to her meeting with the officer, the student had sent the subject a message telling him she was no longer interested in the position.

The officer checked both email addresses sent to the student and found they were scams and fake accounts.

The female didn’t lose any money due to the scam, but did provide personal information.

Campus police forwarded to the email messages to the LTS department so they were aware of the scam being sent to Eau Claire students.