‘Dreadlocks Man’ Caught

Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) apprehended the alleged intruder known to Cabot residents as “dreadlocks man” after his second Cabot trespassing last Saturday.

PeiPei X. Zhang ’08, a Cabot House resident, said she spotted the intruder early last Saturday.

“I went to the bathroom, and I didn’t have my contacts on so I couldn’t see very clearly. Somebody was taking a shower in the third shower. He came out fully clothed, and asked if he could borrow my conditioner because he was visiting somebody who wasn’t ‘very-well stocked.’”

Though Zhang said she didn’t think much of the incident at the time, she said one of her blockmates, who went into the bathroom after her, “really thought it was ‘dreadlocks man.’ ”

Later that morning, Diana L. Link ’08 was eating in the dining hall when she saw a Harvard student outside swiping the alleged intruder into the House.

The student, who was not a Cabot resident, later told Link that she did not know who “dreadlocks man” was.

Link said the alleged intruder “wandered down one of the tunnels in Cabot” and she went to call HUPD officers, who were unable to find him in the House.

According to HUPD’s statement, one of the officers dispatched to Cabot House on Saturday morning stopped a man on Walker Street fitting the description of the alleged intruder.

“The individual, who is not affiliated with the University, admitted to being in the building,” the statement said.

Since the alleged intruder was not found on Harvard property, HUPD was not able to arrest him and instead gave him a trespass warning.

Link described him as a “white male, at least six feet tall, with dreadlocks. He looked kind of scruffy, and was in his late 20s.”

The alleged trespasser was first spotted in Cabot House on March 17. He knocked on a Cabot resident’s door and asked them to engage in illegal drug use with him, said HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano.

In March, Zhang told The Crimson she thought she saw him in the bathroom that day, “showering with the curtain a third of the way open.”

With regards to the first incident, Zhang said, “I was really paranoid, but now that I look back on how I acted, it was really funny.”

Link said that the flurry of House e-mails following the first sighting of the alleged intruder alerted her to recognize him the second time.

Both Link and Zhang said they didn’t change their habits after the first spotting, however.

Zhang said that she thinks “people are more aware to lock their doors,” but added, “I don’t think that my life is in danger...he’s not really a threat.”

Zhang also said that people were less upset the second time than the first.

“He became more of a joke in Cabot House,” she said.

Cabot House Resident Dean Stephen H. Kargere applauded the students who “responded incredibly well, and called HUPD without making any attempt to ask what the intruder was doing. They just preemptively called, and that really made the difference.”

He added that he was impressed with HUPD’s quick response time.

On May 19, the alleged intruder will be arraigned on charges of breaking and entering in the daytime and trespassing.

That same day, the HUPD police log will be updated with his name and address.

—Staff writer Rebecca M. Anders can be reached at rmanders@fas.harvard.edu.