CAMPUS CRIME

University Police arrested a homeless man sleeping in the lobby on the fifth floor of Beta residence hall Wednesday morning.

Dennis Jason, a 24-year-old male with a criminal record, was arrested at 10:07 a.m. on Wednesday after a resident assistant in Beta Hall called police, said Lt. Meg Ross of the University Police (UP). The arrest affidavit lists Jason – originally from Guyana – as being homeless and unemployed.

Ross said the arrest was serious.

“It certainly is a concern. Here this guy was inside on the fifth floor of a building that supposedly only people with keys are allowed in,” she said.

UP officer Alexander Montalvo was the arresting officer. The arrest affidavit states that Jason gave a false name and a false date of birth, as well as produced a “counterfeit registered alien ID card and a counterfeit social security card.”

He was charged with trespassing, unauthorized possession of counterfeit ID and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer, according to the affidavit.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office arrest records, Jason was sent to Orient Road Jail on a $3,000 bond.

UP was able to confirm Jason’s identity through a criminal history check, which revealed that Jason had been arrested for resisting arrest and providing a false ID by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office in 2006.

Ross said residents should report these types of incidents to the police.

“They need to make sure that they don’t let people on, that they don’t prop (open) doors and they don’t let people in,” Ross said.

Kaitlin Baker, a freshman biomedical science major, was unfazed by the event. When asked if she would stop leaving her dorm room door propped open, she said “No, because if it happens again, I want to see it.”

“I’m not really scared. If he was going to do something, he would have done it,” she said.

One student was shocked by the arrest, and plans to be more careful from now on.

“I had no idea that there was anyone in here,” said Brittney Lampkin, a political science major who lives a few doors away from the lobby where Jason was found sleeping. “It’s really creepy to know that. I’d really pay attention to who’s coming in from now on.”