Storrs, Connecticut serves as the backdrop for the latest edition of sneaker-fueled epic fails. There, a University of Connecticut student was charged with breaking into the apartment of another student on campus and stealing pricey sneakers and headphones worth a total of $1,400.
According to an affidavit, on March 30, a bit after 1 a.m., UCONN police received a call about a burglary of an apartment in Hoisington Hall in the Charter Oak Apartment Complex, located on the Storrs campus. The student who resided in the burgled apartment, told police he returned to his room at around 12:30 a.m. and discovered his window open and several empty shoeboxes on his bed; neither were as he left them when he left at 8:30 p.m.
The student relayed to officers that four people knew he typically left his window unlocked, and of those four, he believed that Dunham was most likely to have broken in to his residence. He also told police that he and Dunham were not on good terms because Dunham believed that the student owed him money.
The victim did the amount of money Dunham said he was owed changed on a daily basis, ranging from $12 to $50, and was based on various occasions when Dunham gave him small amounts of cash.
The victim gave police a list of items that , according to him, were missing and this included five pair of sneakers and a pair of headphones.
When law enforcement interviewed Dunham on April 3, he was evasive regarding his whereabouts and activities the night of the burglary, telling officers he left his dorm at approximately 8 p.m. and returned to campus at midnight.
Police scrutinized Dunham’s alibi by attempting to determine where he was by wireless routers that were used when he logged onto the university’s wireless network. Using the record of the network logins police were able to retrace Dunham’s steps that night:
– His phone accessed the network using a router in Hoisington Hall at 10:28 p.m. and then nearby Foster Hall at 10:37 p.m.
– Dunham then returned to his dorm and made another trip to Foster hall over the next half-hour.
A search warrant was issued and executed for Dunham’s iPhone. The search found a message exchange between Dunham and a friend in which he asked him to go along with a concocted story of them hanging out at a bar.
The alleged perpetrator, 22-year-old UCONN student Ernest Dunham told police that the other student owed him $125.
A subsequent interview with police Dunham admitted to entering the victim’s room through the window to take things to compensate himself for money he was owed.
He returned some of the sneakers back to the police precinct.
UCONN spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz stated Tuesday that Dunham was still enrolled as a student.
