The Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) has apprehended a suspect believed to have broken into a student’s room at 1115 Campus Drive, a self-op formerly known as the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (EBF).
The break-in occurred Saturday night around 11:30 pm, according to Logan Campbell ’28, whose mesh window was torn open by an individual he believed was in his late sixties. Campbell had been studying in his room before going outside to pick up a food order. When he returned, he opened his door to find a stranger inside.
“I was gone for maybe a minute, minute and a half. And I come back, and I open the door, and it hits somebody,” said Campbell in a statement to The Daily. “I thought maybe one of my friends came back … or maybe some [fraternity] pledge … I opened the door fully and I saw the guy climbing out of my window.”
Campbell, believing the intruder to be a fellow student playing a prank, followed the suspect out of the window and to his bike. He attempted to stop the individual from leaving on his bike, at which point “he lifted up his shirt and he’s like ‘bro, I’ll shoot you, bro.’” Campbell said, however, that the intruder did not appear to have a weapon on his person.
Campbell does not believe the burglar stole anything of value, and he has since identified the suspect apprehended by the police as the same person who entered his room. He also expressed regret for chasing after the suspect given the danger it could have posed. “It’s never worth it. Don’t do that,” Campbell said.
1115 Campus Drive resident Gideon Witchel ’28 told The Daily that the University has provided several services to impacted students in response to the event, including temporary housing and psychological support. Campbell told The Daily that he has appreciated these efforts, and the swiftness with which law enforcement and University services responded to the issue.
“The response was quick,” Campbell said. “The police were great.”
Campbell said he felt “paranoid” after the incident, but both he and Witchel chose to view this event as an abnormality. “I really gotta square this away in my mind as a statistical anomaly,” he said.
“Stanford is a very safe place to be. I think people sometimes get freaked out when stuff like this happens,” said Witchel. “But I think it’s a place that’s very safe, we’re very well protected. These instances tend to be isolated.”
SUDPS and Campbell identified the suspect with help from University cameras outside the dorm. However, both Witchel and Campbell said they don’t believe an increase in security is the answer to the incident and others like it.
While Campbell appreciated the camera’s assistance, he said that he “[doesn’t] want to be watched constantly.” He instead suggested fostering a stronger community and practicing greater personal security, like locking one’s doors and closing windows when leaving the room.
Witchel echoed this sentiment, saying, “Instances like these are oftentimes used as excuses for our extended isolation [from the broader community], but I think that that isolation is much more harmful than good for students.” He claimed that Stanford students should remember that they exist in a part of the “real world,” and that many events like these are motivated by poverty.
“I don’t think there’s anything that can change on this front. Buildings have windows, windows can be broken, right? … Securitization is not the solution to petty theft driven by inequality. It’s addressing the inequality itself,” said Witchel.