UM Police Respond to Attempted Break-In Incidents

UPDATE---10:00 A.M. Sunday, February 2, 2020

The University of Montana sent out a second ‘timely warning’ on Sunday morning that referred to the timely warning sent out early Saturday:

‘The University of Montana Police Department has identified the subjects who were the focus of the UM Timely Warning issued on February 1.

The subjects are cooperating with the investigation. Based upon the preliminary information received, the University Police Department does not believe there is a continuing threat to our campus community.

The University Police Department would like to thank all those providing information, which helped us make this determination in a timely manner.’

Lt. Brad Giffin described the purpose of the ‘timely warnings’ as opposed to an alert to the campus community.

“The timely warnings are part of the federal Cleary Act that requires us as the University Police Department that once we have developed information that there is some kind of continuing threat to the campus that we are obligated to put out a warning,” said Giffin. “That includes what type of even occurred and where it occurred and we give some tips on avoiding a situation like that, and then encouraging people to call and give us information. In this particular incidence it helped us greatly. A timely warning is required by law for Cleary crimes, but we can put out alerts for other issues like thefts from motor vehicles because we’ve had a rash of those. We put one of those alerts out and we had lots of responses saying that alert ‘made me think about what was in my car and helped to get me out of a situation that I didn’t want to be in’.”

Giffin said thanks to Saturday’s timely warning, UM Police were able to contact those involved the investigation is continuing, however they have determined there is no danger to the campus community.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to a timely warning released by the University of Montana Police Department early Saturday morning:

‘The University of Montana Police Department has responded to two complaints from residents in UM housing off of Cinnabar Drive.

These complaints are of three male suspects attempting to enter apartments.

During the first incident, there were three males, two at the door and one waiting outside in a vehicle. The two males at the door were attempting to open the locked door at the time. They appeared to be in their early twenties, wearing hooded sweatshirts. The residents were home at the time and they did not recognize these individuals and called 9-1-1.

Officers responded and were unable to locate the subjects.  The suspect vehicle is described as a gold 2004 Chevy sedan.

This incident occurred on Wednesday January 29^th at about 7:30 p.m.

The second incident was similar to the first with the exception that only one male was seen at the resident’s door. This male is approximately 5’10”, 150-175 pounds, wearing a baseball cap. The male has dark facial hair in the style of a goatee and bushy eyebrows.

This incident occurred on Friday, January 31^st at about 7:30 p.m. A short video of this male was attached to the text message. The male is lightly knocking at the door, however the residents do not recognize him.

Please keep your doors of your homes locked and verify who is at the door before answering it.

We also recommend keeping your vehicles locked and do not leave anything of value in them.

If you see persons matching these descriptions, or know the identity of the male in the video, please notify the University of Montana Police Emergency Line at 243-4000, or no-emergency line at 243-6131.’