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UCIPD Issues Second Zot Alert

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A Zot Alert was sent out by the UC Irvine Police Department in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 10, notifying the campus community of a male subject who suspiciously entered rooms in Mesa Court housing.
According to UCI Chief of Police Paul Henisey, the Zot Mail was helpful in moving the case along as one caller, who was sent a Zot Mail about the incident, called into the police station. This allowed police to clarify that the individual in question was not intentionally prowling or looking to cause a sexual assault.
‘Once we determined that it was one of our students and the fact that the student had a legitimate right to be in that dormitory, it lessened the degree of the incident,’ Henisey said.
Still, the male subject under investigation was engaged in activity deemed inappropriate by the UCIPD, according to Henisey.
While the student’s identification and intentions in the dormitory still remain undisclosed to the public, what is known is that this marks the second time a Zot Alert was sent to the campus community in three weeks. The first Zot Alert, sent on Sunday, Jan. 20, involved an armed robbery of three Mesa Court residents by two unidentified males between the ages of 18 and 20.
Despite these recent occurrences, Mesa Court residents such as Freddy Gladney, a first-year undeclared/undecided major, continue to have confidence in UCI’s security, though with some change of opinion.
‘I feel perfectly safe, [but] obviously I would have felt safer if none of it happened,’ Gladney said.
Because so few facts have been released about the incident thus far, Joe Haider, a Mesa Court resident advisor and third-year political science major, warned students not to let their imaginations get out of control.
‘Mesa Court residents don’t know exactly what happened except what was sent out by e-mail. … The problem is rumors get spread and that’s when more of these incidents occur,’ Haider said.
Thus far, the only Zot Alert to be mass-distributed to the campus community consisted of two paragraphs with barely 100 words of text, leaving lots of room for speculation.
Still, Haider said that rumors about the incident have been greatly exaggerated and also affirmed his confidence in the Mesa Court staff.
‘The rumors are actually worse than the actual incident