Registered sex offender warned by UAPD after calling UA students

Two UA students reported receiving harassing phone calls to their dorm room phone that were suspected to be from a man between 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 14, and 5:30 a.m. on Monday. The women reported the incident to UAPD at 6:45 a.m. on Monday.

A UAPD officer went to the women’s residence hall where the women told him that an unknown caller, who they believed to be a white adult male, had started calling the telephone in their dorm room at approximately 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 14.

The caller asked what the student who answered was wearing. She handed the phone to her roommate, thinking that it was her boyfriend. The caller then asked the student on the phone if she was wearing a bra. She asked the caller why he was calling her. He replied, “”Because I’m horny.””

The woman hung up on the caller, but he proceeded to call back several times between then and the next four days. Each time he called he continued to breathe heavily, speak softly and ask what the student on the phone was wearing. Both of the women in the dorm room felt the calls were “”creepy,”” but told the officer they declined to pursue prosecutorial proceedings if a suspect was identified.

The officer then went to University Information Technology Services. He was able to successfully determine the phone where the calls were coming from. The officer also found the full name and address of the man to whom the number belongs.

The officer then located records for the same man, discovering that he is a registered sex offender with an address matching that of the one he had found through UITS. The officer returned to the residence hall where the two women lived and asked if either one of them knew the man. Both said that they did not. He then asked them if they wished for UAPD to contact the man and have him stop calling them, to which they both replied, “”Yes.””

After returning to UAPD, the officer used a department phone and audio tape recorder to call the number from which the calls originated. After the officer dialed the phone number, a man answered the phone. This same man later verbally identified himself with the same name as that of the registered sex offender.

The officer asked him a series of questions on the phone. The man admitted that he had been calling phone numbers at random and would only talk to the person who answered if it was a woman. He said he had spoken to women whom he didn’t know and asked them questions while he masturbated. The man admitted that he had made a “”huge mistake.”” He also said he would stop making the phone calls. The officer told him that these types of phone calls were a misdemeanor offense and if any woman who received the calls wanted to press charges, he would be under arrest. The two UA students were notified by a voicemail that the man had been contacted by UAPD and said he would not call again.