Vanderbilt University Police Department received a report of a suspicious person entering two Chaffin apartment residences on Saturday, Oct. 25. Students reported that a person climbed over their balcony and attempted to enter their dorm through their back door before moving on to other Chaffin residences. These incidents are currently under active investigation.  

Sophomore Nicholas Kwok was sleeping in his Chaffin apartment dorm around 7:35 a.m. CDT on Saturday morning when the suspect entered his living room.  

“I just naturally woke up at 7:30, went to grab water and then went back to bed. Around five minutes later, I heard some noises in the living room. I just assumed it was one of my roommates, right? So, I was just half asleep and then I saw someone try to open my bedroom door in a black puffer,” Kwok said in an interview with The Hustler. 

Kwok, who lives in a double room, said he assumed the man was one of his roommates returning from College GameDay and blindly greeted him before slowly shutting his bedroom door.  Kwok said he assumed the suspect was one of his other roommates and sent him a message shortly before going back to sleep.  

After waking up, one of Kwok’s roommates told him that the man in his living room was not one of their roommates and that the police had come by to investigate around 9 a.m. They returned at 11 a.m. to dust for fingerprints on the balcony where the suspect entered the dorm. The suspect was in the dorm for about five minutes before realizing Kwok was home. 

Kwok recalled being told by the police that the suspect had entered an occupied bedroom of a possible third residence before fleeing.  

“It was unlucky because it was the one day we had [our back door] unlocked just by chance. If he came any other day, it would have been locked, so now we’re just making sure it’s locked,” Kwok said.  

Junior Elisabeth Meade lives in one of the apartments the suspect unsuccessfully attempted to enter.  

“I think it’s very unsettling to think of how close we came to having someone break in, I never really imagined that might happen while living on campus, but now I’m more aware of the need for security,” Meade said.  

When asked why students did not receive an AlertVU notification about the suspect, a VUPD representative said those notifications are reserved for serious and imminent threats. VUPD determined this situation did not pose an ongoing risk to the Vanderbilt community. They said that they encourage all on-campus residents to take measures to protect their belongings and have increased their patrols near Chaffin. 

“We continue to urge all campus residents to lock their doors and secure their items against possible theft. We have also increased patrols in the area, which we do as a matter of practice when areas of campus have experienced a serious incident,” the statement reads.  

Security notices are supposed to be sent out to students through email when there is believed to be a threat to community members, including robbery and burglary, according to the VUPS website. However, none were sent out following the Chaffin incident. The Hustler did not receive an immediate response when asking about why a security notice was not issued. 

Sophomore Sai Mattapalli, a Chaffin resident, said he was not notified about the attempted break-ins and mentioned other concerns over the school’s alert system. 

“I was not notified about the break-in and I think it’s part of a series of incidents for everyone living on Highland where we aren’t notified about these sort of incidents with VUPD going on,” Mattapalli said. “I think another example is the parking lot being broken into, and actually one of our good friend’s car was broken into, and none of the parents or people were notified, even if they were the people who were parking their cars there.”