According to eyewitness sources, this morning two men were apprehended in Canaday Courtyard after a number of police motorcycles, cruisers, and HUPD officers on foot chased them down.

Some sources say the two men had stolen/attempted to steal phones from T-Mobile and tried to hide in the Women’s Center before realizing there was no way out.

UPDATE: According to an eyewitness, there were about three young men (younger than college students) who ran into the Women’s Center basement in hopes of hiding, but were apprehended at the top of the stairs by waiting police officers.

* EXCLUSIVE account of the Harvard Business School student who was mugged yesterday evening, Saturday Dec 11th, 2010 at approximately 8:30pm. (His name has been retracted to protect his privacy)

From Noice to supposedly-safer-than-New-Haven Cambridge : WTF?

——————————————–

Dear friends,

As many of you have known, I was mugged yesterday evening. Many thanks to those who called or emailed to express your concerns. I really appreciate it. Here’s a more detailed description of the incident. Hopefully this may help you rethink your definition of “safe time” and “safe place”.

I had dinner in Harvard Square by myself and bought some fruits and drinks from 7/11 on my way back to campus (I live in Chase). I have no idea since when I was stalked as there were still many people and cars on the JFK street at 8pm on Saturday. As I was walking along the path outside Hamilton and almost getting to the lawn in front of Baker Library [...], two men quietly approached me from behind and wrestled me down to the ground. As one of them pressed me to the ground and said “give me your money”, the other quickly found and grabbed my wallet from the back pocket of my jeans, and then both of them ran away via the path and then the JFK bridge to Cambridge side. It happened at around 8:20pm and the entire process lasted about 20 seconds. I reported the incident to HBS security located in Aldrich immediately afterwards and filed it with HUPD. My friend’s friend found my empty wallet at the Cambridge side of JFK bridge – all cash and cards were taken.

They didn’t threat me with any weapon or claim to have any. I didn’t get injured at all. I am completely fine, both physically and mentally. I received phone calls from Youngme Moon and Barbara Siegfriedt later, to whom I suggested the school consider installing some security cameras around the boundary of the campus.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Beast has the answer. The popular news website, the brainchild of former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, just released its ranking of the 50 most stressful colleges in the US. Lo and behold, Harvard is ranked #5, only trailing after Stanford, Columbia, MIT and Penn.

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

The five criteria taken into consideration are (excerpts from the actual article):

• The cost: Financial pressure is a huge stress-inducer. Tuition plus room and board, weighted at 35 percent. With 2009-2010 data from the National Center on Education Statistics.

• Competitiveness: How academically rigorous is the school? Weighted at 35 percent, with 2010 data from US News & World Report.

• Acceptance rate: More competitive schools generally produce a more competitive student body. Weighted at 10 percent, with 2010 data from US News & World Report.

• Engineering: Is the school known for its particularly rigorous graduate engineering program? Weighted at 10 percent, with 2010 data from US News & World Report.

• Crime on campus: Adapted from The Daily Beast’s analysis of college crime, weighted at 10 percent and ranked relative to this particular group of colleges. With data from the US Department of Education.

Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently the crazy knife-wielding FOLKS are at it again. Reportedly a man was stabbed in the neck by an unidentified suspect on Dunster Street in Harvard Square before 3 p.m. today. There are also alleged reports that it’s not just one person behind this machete/knife/wtf havoc, but two. One is sporting a butterfly knife while the other is going old school with a box cutter. Last time I checked this wasn’t NEW HAVEN.

http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/2010/01/25/man-stabbed-in-neck-on-dunster-st-in-harvard-sq/

Hello Kitty + oil + curlers + snowballs = HUPD's January

Just because you go home, that doesn’t mean that HUPD stops working.  That said, the number of police reports did dramatically diminish over the past few weeks.  The decrease in the student body means fewer parties to shut down and fewer laptop thefts.  Even so, the Harvard Police Logs do not fall short when it comes to stories sure to make you laugh, tremble, or simply wonder.

This report from Christmas Eve is actually quite sad.  Don’t laugh.  That was somebody’s Christmas package.  Just picture somebody using all four of these gifts at once.  How happy would she have been then?

12/24/09 6:12 PM – 95 Prescott St. – Theft Report

Officer dispatched to take a report of items stolen from a package.  The package contained a Hello Kitty pajama set valued at $40.00, olive oil valued at $10.00, hair curlers valued at $35.00, and a snowball maker valued at $15.00. Read the rest of this entry »

UMMMMMM. As I was browsing the lovely world wide web this morning I could not help but notice the following headline “Police Searching for Teenager Armed With Machete in Harvard Square.” Now…I’m all for sensationalism so I’m just going to come right out and say it: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, ‘NAM?! HOW DO YOU EVEN GET A HOLD OF A MACHETE IN 2010!? The linked article reports on the suspect: “‘He is armed with a machete, so use caution,’ said a dispatcher.” WELL NO SHIT SHERLOCK. If I see a guy with a suspicious looking baton I’m going to run for the hills–no I don’t care if it has sparkles on it! This is an ALL CAPS what on earth is going on moment. I’m genuinely concerned about going to CVS now since my soda runs could become like running through a war zone. I don’t like that.

“Police have been checking the area of The Pit, Brattle Street, and Harvard Yard,” the article continues. So basically, what this means is DON’T SWIPE ANYONE WITH A MACHETE INTO YOUR DORM. I really don’t like how close all of these locations are to the big H homeland. The report came in over dispatch and the suspect allegedly is “between 16-17 years old, 6 feet tall, with blond hair and a black jacket with white stripes.” What bothers me greatly about this is that he should be learning how to drive, maybe going see Avatar, not wearing stripes (they’re not in season), but he’s instead terrorizing the ‘Bridge with a machete. I don’t like this. Not one bit.

Amateur Guestimation of Suspect's Looks by Me

So, if you see any suspicious activity–like a young man/human/crazy person wielding a CRAZY LARGE knife, call the popo and RUN. I think we all know that talking down a machete wielder, no matter how well you did in Psych, is not a great plan. Flee people. Flee. Or invest in a bodyguard. Hey that kid at Georgetown sent out a personal ad for an assistant–if anyone around the Yard feels like pulling a Watchmen (which I may or may not be currently watching on HBO), and protecting us all (specifically me), from the Machete Man, just hit me up. Via e-mail. Don’t hit me.

Oh honey, my mascara does that smeary thing too sometimes.

In weird Harvard-related news:

A man from Harvard Business School allegedly choked a cop this weekend – while dressed in drag. Naturally he was dolled up for the Priscilla Ball (as in, Priscilla Queen of the Desert) hosted by the HBS Australia and New Zealand club. We hope this all gets sorted out soon and that the officer involved was not hurt in the scuffle. And while we shake our collective heads in shame at their conduct (that’s certainly not the way a lady behaves), we can’t help but chortle a bit. Plus, the word-nerd in us is weirdly excited – ever notice that grad also spells drag?

But certainly the most entertaining/infuriating aspect of this whole affair is the comments left by anonymous users on the source site. And while we certainly agree that Harvard’s image has declined in recent times, we can’t help but ask that random people on the interwebs calm the heck down; a couple rowdy grad students ≠ the end of Harvard and the world as we know it. Read our “favorite”  comments after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »