Reptiles, Thefts In South Hall

It's an unsettling feeling to return to your bedroom and see evidence of an unwanted intruder. Perhaps more unsettling is when the intruder is a foot-long lizard.

Last week, South Hall residents experienced a bizarre and at times frightening week, including two possible thefts, a suspicious man entering a student's room and the inexplicable appearance of a lizard in junior Marti Newland's dorm room.

"This lizard is huge," she said. "I was terrified ‹ it scared the living bejesus out of me," she said.

When Newland, a Resident Coordinator, returned to her room from an afternoon class on Wednesday, she encountered the enormous lizard lounging on a shelf. The lizard is believed to be a Monitor, and Newland's internet research led her to speculate it may be a species from either Africa or India. Making matters difficult, the surreptitious reptile blended seamlessly with Newland's carpet and shelves, and most of the time was impossible to see. "It took me three days to calm down," she said.

The lizard was seen in the room as recently as Monday, five days after Newland first saw it. Moreover, on Wednesday, box traps planted by local environmental company Ace Wildlife remained empty. The departments of Security and Maintenance assured her that the imposing reptile would have been too large to enter the room through a radiator, fueling Newland's suspicions that the lizard was planted in her room.

Newland expressed concern that neither Security nor the Office of Residential Life and Services took her problem seriously. "There was no investigation ‹ no sense that someone had put [the lizard] in my room," she said. "They weren't acting immediately. There were constant questions but no action."

Director of Residential Life and Services Kim LaFond defended Res Life's handling of the issue. "We certainly weren't going to do a room-to-room. First we had to deal with the rumor, then wait for a confirmation," he said. LaFond also said that the lizard problem needed to be treated seriously due to the health concerns its presence presented. "It's not good for the animal and it's a health hazard for students to have pets."

Newland also said that the Security officer who responded to her initial call treated her in a condescending manner. "He said, 'If you want us to come and make you feel better, we can'," Newland said.

Newland moved from South to African Heritage House shortly after she encountered her room's newest inhabitant. Thursday, she discovered that her downstairs neighbor had a lizard as a pet, a violation of Res Life regulations, which only allow students to keep fish and small turtles as pets. "[The problem] is being addressed," LaFond said.

Interim Director of Safety and Security Robert Jones speculated that the lizard crawled through the walls to deposit itself in Newland's third-floor room.

Controversy of the non-reptillian ilk followed in South, as two bizarre incidents that may have been thefts and the appearance of a strange man in a students' room occurred over the next three days.

First, after a student had left the bedroom for a mere 20 minutes, the South Hall resident returned to find the room still locked, but with the television remote control stolen, a previously broken closet door put correctly back on its track and stashed peanut butter eaten.

The next morning, another student left his or her room locked to take a shower down the hall. When the student returned 15 minutes later, a small amount of jewelry was stolen, although the door mysteriously remained locked.

Newland said that Security's response to this second theft was apathetic and inappropriate. "When we called they told us they'd be there in 45 minutes. That's unacceptable ‹ absolutely unacceptable."

Jones said this delayed response time must have been a discrepancy, as officers tend to arrive almost instantly. "Most of the time, our response time should be about two minutes," he said.

Assistant Area Coordinator Matthew Hayden commended Security for what he believed to be a speedy response time, saying, "They responded quickly and certainly spent many hours with the [affected] students."

LaFond said any delay from his department was due to the necessity of collecting accurate factual information. "I'm not going to say [response time] is immediate. You have to sort out what's fact and what's fiction."

Hayden said no evidence existed confirming that any acts of thievery definitely occurred. "There's no reason to believe there's any room that definitely has been entered," he said.

Still, Newland expressed discontent with what she perceived as a lack of productive activity on the part of each department. "I'm concerned that this has been taken so casually by both Security and Res Life," she said.

The jewelry was returned the next day and Jones confirmed that the remote control was found in an adjoining bedroom. However, the disappearance of the peanut butter and the miraculous righting of the closet door remain a mystery.

Saturday morning at 4 a.m., a student awoke to a strange person standing near the bed. The student originally speculated the incident may have been a dream, and waited until Monday to report it to Security.

Responding to the recent high level of suspicious activity in South, Newland said, "I don't understand why [Res Life and Security] didn't immediately go and get cameras."

However, LaFond said, "I don't particularly like them ‹ I think they're an invasion of privacy." LaFond, who formerly worked in New York University's Office of Residential Life, pointed out the logistical difficulty of tying up Security staff with staring at monitors.

"The best preventative medicine, whether you're in or not in the room, is to lock the door," he said.