On Sept. 28, a report of two men selling fraudulent magazines in the Orchard Avenue apartments was made. These same men are currently under investigation for the theft of personal belongings from the Maverick Pavilion one day earlier on Sept. 27.
The men went door to door in the Orchard apartments to talk to residents, asking if anyone would be interested in helping with a fundraiser they said was for a mass communications class. The said fundraiser was a partnership with Barnes and Noble and involved sending magazines to deployed soldiers and children at the hospital. The men had a brochure which they showed to residents, depicting different levels of donation. A certain amount of donated money equaled a certain amount of points, and different magazines were on different point tiers.
The pitch, according to a Safety Advisory and Timely Warning email sent by Dana Nunn on Oct. 2, was not accurate. The incident is currently under investigation by campus police and the Grand Junction Police Department. Pua Utu, director of campus safety and student conditions, declined to comment.
Erin Krueger, a junior resident who lives on the second floor, and her suitemate spoke to these men when they knocked on her door at around 6 p.m. Although these men looked like students and had material that seemed official, according to Krueger, their pitch was suspicious for several reasons.
“It started getting weird, because I was like, shouldn’t you guys have a booth on campus or something like that?” Krueger said, in reference to her thoughts at the time of the interaction.
The men seemed willing to accept donations in any form.
“Then they started asking, like, for money and stuff, and that when I was like, I don’t have any money on me. And they were like, bank account numbers and I was like, okay, no, and we [Krueger and her suitemate] closed the door,” Krueger said.
Krueger did not give the men any information or money, though she said her suitemate gave the men her name and phone number.
Like the rest of campus, Krueger found out that the incident was under investigation for fraud on Oct. 2 from Nunn’s email. She said she did not make a report, as she had a meeting to go to after this interaction, and she does not know of anyone else who did report the incident. Resident assistants in the Orchard apartments, according to Krueger, did not discuss the incident with residents.
The senior RA on the second floor declined to comment on this incident, and Serena Brown, coordinator of Orchard, Tolman and Pinon could not be reached.
Though the Orchard Avenue apartments require a coded Mavcard to enter, Krueger believes it wouldn’t be difficult for anyone to enter the residence hall.
“I mean, I have a theory of how they might get in, because say you’re walking and someone behind you is like, ‘hey can you hold the door open, please.’ ‘Oh yeah sure.’ We don’t necessarily know everyone who lives in here,” Krueger said.
Students who have additional information regarding this incident, or who recognize the men in the photos, are encouraged to contact the Grand Junction Police Department at (970) 242-6707, CrimeStoppers at (970) 241-7867 or Student Services at (970) 248-1366.
