WEST LAFAYETTE -- Three intruders, one armed with a handgun, broke into a Purdue University residence hall room and tried to rob two students, police said.\nThe two students living in the Earhart Hall room told investigators they woke up about 4 a.m. Sunday after the group came into the room and threatened to tie one of them up with duct tape and steal items, including a video game system.\nThe intruders fled when the two residents two began shouting for help, campus police Capt. John Cox said.\nOfficers arrested James Richardson III, 20; Jovonee J. Thomas, 19, and a 13-year-old boy, who are all from Gary, in a parking lot outside the residence hall. Officers reported finding a handgun and a partial roll of duct tape on the three.\nCox said one of the students complained of neck pain, but declined medical treatment.\nPurdue officials said the three did not have any affiliation with the school and were visiting two students who live in Earhart over the weekend, which is how they were able to enter locked building.\n"During the day, our halls are pretty accessible," said Joseph Bennett, Purdue's vice president for university relations. "But that late at night, they would not have had normal access. But they were visiting a friend who stays in that hall and he was able to check them in."\nAll three were arrested on burglary and marijuana possession charges. Richardson and Thomas were being held Monday in the Tippecanoe County Jail, while the juvenile was released to his parents.
sh: Homeowners growing impatient with student neighbors
MUNCIE, Ind. -- A growing number of homeowners with houses near Ball State University are complaining about tensions between students who live in rental properties and their neighbors.\nResidents insist the problem began long before 21-year-old Michael McKinney was shot and killed by a campus police officer responding to a Nov. 8 report of a stranger pounding on someone's door.\n"Somebody else is going to get shot," homeowner Frank Puzzullo said. "Either a neighbor is going to shoot a student or a police officer will."\nBall State students are well established in many neighborhoods surrounding the University. But homeowners complain that many students bring more cars, more trash and more alcohol when they arrive.\nStudents, they insist, damage property, reduce real-estate values and force longtime residents to move from neighborhoods that once were quiet.\nSome students say they do not care what their neighbors think. Many of those who throw large parties, such as 21-year-old Randy Buckee, say they are primarily concerned for their own homes.\n"I've seen people take signs off houses next door and windows getting broken," Buckee told The Star Press. "That and people are always leaving tracks through other people's yards."\nAfter McKinney's death, other homeowners recounted instances in which intoxicated students came seeking shelter in a stranger's house.\nToni Rivers recalled a young man banging on her front door.\n"I was hollering at him to please leave," Rivers said. "He wouldn't do it. I finally called the police."\nBuckee is familiar with the problem. Less than two weeks ago, he ended up on a stranger's doorstep intoxicated.\n"I woke up and realized I wasn't in my house," he explained. "After walking home from the bars, I had walked into the house next door. I guess I thought it was mine, because I stripped down to my boxers and fell asleep on their couch until 10 the next morning."\nBuckee said he was fortunate he knew the students who lived in the house and that they did not mind him sleeping there.\n"I mean, if they had called the cops that night and if I would have tried to run or something ... I don't even want to think about what could have happened," he said.\nPolice do not track alcohol-related incidents specific to Ball State, but figures on the University's Web site indicate 52 people were arrested for liquor law violations on campus in 2002 and disciplinary action was taken against 480.\nSome homeowners are hopeful that both sides can coexist.\n"These students are our lifeblood in many ways," homeowner Bonnie Willy said. "We've got to help them find their boundaries, certainly, but we can't afford in this community to have an us-versus-them mentality"
