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An actual-life nightmare crept right into a sorority home close to UC Berkeley over Halloween weekend: a person in a ski masks who authorities stated slipped by means of bedrooms and lurked in showers at the hours of darkness.
One girl was jolted awake by a darkish determine close to her mattress, in accordance with Berkeley Police Officer Byron White. One other was within the bathe when she was focused by a Peeping Tom, police stated.
Authorities stated the terrifying occasions unfolded from round 3 to six:35 a.m. on Nov. 1, hours after a lot of the campus had been busy celebrating Halloween. The intruder then left the scene of the break-in with stolen underwear and pizza, White stated.
Officers just lately arrested 45-year-old Courtney Alford of Dublin in reference to the sorority home break-in, in accordance with the Berkeley Police Division. Once they searched the suspect’s residence, they discovered assault rifle components, high-capacity ammunition magazines and greater than 900 rounds of ammunition.
On Thursday, Alford was charged with housebreaking, peeking, invading privateness, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of ammunition by a felon and trespassing, in accordance with court docket information. He has pleaded not responsible to all counts filed in opposition to him.
Alford has an in depth prison historical past in Alameda County, with circumstances stretching again to 1998. He beforehand was discovered responsible of housebreaking, grand theft, assault with a lethal weapon, making prison threats and evading a peace officer, amongst different fees.
He additionally pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of lewd acts upon a toddler beneath 14 filed in opposition to him in March 2024, in accordance with court docket information. That case stays open.
“He’s somebody that’s identified to the Berkeley Police Division nicely sufficient that an officer acknowledged him from one” of the surveillance pictures, White stated.
On Nov. 1, Berkeley police responded to a name at a sorority home within the 2300 block of Warring Avenue relating to a person who was seen inside a girls’s bed room.
“This younger woman was in her mattress asleep, alongside along with her three different roommates, and he or she wakened and there was this individual inside her room,” White stated. “It’s understandably surprising and scary.”
Safety video from the house confirmed the suspect strolling each inside and out of doors the constructing, at one level returning in a brand new set of garments and a ski masks, police stated.
White stated investigators spoke with a minimum of three victims. However he famous that about 65 girls had been residing in the home, all of whom had been in all probability affected by Alford’s alleged actions.
“Simply the data that any individual had been inside the house like that,” the officer stated, “going into bedrooms, taking underwear, watching individuals bathe, regardless if that was you or not, it does shake your sense of security.”
A UC Berkeley spokesperson stated that the college was conscious of the incident at an off-campus sorority and that the scholar affairs crew was offering assets to the group.
Berkeley police used computerized license plate readers to trace Alford’s automobile within the space earlier than and after the housebreaking. They positioned him in Castro Valley on Wednesday and arrested him.
He’s being held on the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $275,000 bail and is due again in court docket Nov. 18.
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