SPEA dean located after car found empty, engine running

An employee of the Cracker Barrel at 25th Post Road in Indianapolis reported a suspicious vehicle in the restaurant’s parking lot to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department at about 1:48 a.m. Tuesday.

The car’s engine had been running for the duration of the afternoon and evening but was not occupied.

Upon running the plates, it was found the car belongs to IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham.

The Bloomington Police Department became involved. BPD officers contacted Graham’s wife when they received word from IMPD, BPD Detective Sgt. John Kovach said.

Graham’s wife described her husband to officers as “an absent-minded professor” and said the incident was characteristic of the dean.

She told police her husband was in Ohio participating in a golf outing with two men, Kovach said.

A car belonging to one of the other men was also discovered in the Cracker Barrel parking lot upon running license plate numbers.

Authorities established contact via phone with Graham at about 3:28 a.m.
The men had used the restaurant as a rendezvous point and carpooled to the outing, Kovach said.

Graham confirmed with officers he was in Ohio at a golf outing with the two others and that he left his car running by accident.

He said the car he drives is particularly quiet when in idle mode, and he left the vehicle’s engine running in the parking lot as a result.
 
— Michael Majchrowicz