Roxanne Fleischer
News Co-Editor
On September 10 Campus Safety sent out an email describing a man that a non-student woman had been car-jacked in the area of Union Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The email, sent out at 8:30 p.m., was retracted the next day, at 11:40 a.m. when Director of Campus Safety Mike Webster sent another email informing that the woman had falsely reported the carjacking.
“It’s better to put [the email] out and have to retract it than to not put it out and have someone else be carjacked later that evening” said Webster.
He also said that the woman whose report was a hoax had friends on campus, although she was not a student herself. There were a lot of things that didn’t make sense in her report, but, as Webster said, “we don’t give every victim the third degree every time they come in.”
The woman had come into the Department of Campus Safety Office and reported the incident, “making us believe she needed a place to come for help,” Webster said.
The investigation was turned over to the Westminster Police, and the woman recanted her report. The Westminster Police classified the matter as “unfounded” according to the second email.
The incident tested the speed and efficiency of DoCS campus alerts. In the first email, Webster gave advice to protect the McDaniel College community that should be taken to heart despite the false alarm.