Outsider gets in Quad room

A man was arrested early yesterday morning in the Quadrangle by University Police after he was caught rummaging through a student's room, University Police Sergeant Ivan Kimble said last night. Kimble said officers responded to a call at around 3:30 a.m. yesterday that an unidentified male was asking students for money in Bodine in the Quad. The officers checked the area but could not find the man. When the officers went to the front desk, they discovered that a student had signed the male -- who has had prior contacts with University Police -- into the dorm. While police searched for the student who signed the male in, College freshman Cara Rubenstein awoke to find the male rummaging through drawers in her Speakman dorm room, Kimble said. Rubenstein screamed loudly and the male ran through the dorm and out to the Lower Quad. Residents in Speakman and police at the front desk heard the screams and residents observed the male running into the courtyard, Kimble said. University Police apprehended the male in the Lower Quad. Rubenstein said last night that she is fortunate that nothing serious happened to her. "I'm lucky I wasn't hurt," she said. "I'm lucky that nothing was taken and I'm lucky that it was no more than a burglary. I was put in the worst situation of my life." Rubenstein added that she locked her room before she went to sleep and said the fact that the man got into the room frightened her most about the incident. "It was the scariest thing in the world to wake up and see him going through my stuff on the floor," Rubenstein said. "He was twice my size. My first instinct was to scream and I screamed really loudly. I screamed so loudly, they heard me from across the dorm." Rubenstein said she got a clear view of the man in her room and later, while chasing him down the hall of Class of 28 dorm. She positively identified him and he was taken to Philadelphia Police headquarters, where he was charged with burglary, Kimble said. Kimble said Residential Living "will deal with the matter of student signing the person in," but Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone said last night that she did not want to comment on what her department plans to do about the incident. Simeone said that students should "absolutely not" sign people in who are not their guests. "I would say to all students to never sign anyone in that they don't know and that they are not taking responsibility for," she said. "[Students] should only be singing their guests in. Everyone else is potentially dangerous to the community and to their fellow students." Rubenstein said students must adhere to this rule in order for dorm security to succeed. "There is no point to security if you're going to take any guy and sign him in," she said. "Obviously the system isn't working. He was all around the Quad before he got to my room. People have to know that they are responsible for the people they sign in." Rubenstein said she was concerned about the possibility of something more tragic happening the next time somebody breaks in.