Latest break-in resembles “Cuddler” attacks

Early Wednesday morning a man entered a house on the 3300 block of Prospect Street and lay on top of one of the female residents. This is the fourth suspicious incident the residents of the house have experienced. The Wednesday morning break-in bears a striking resemblance to the string of sexually motivated burglaries in the Georgetown area which some students attributed to “the Georgetown Cuddler.”

In the March 5 issue of the Voice, Metropolitan Police Department Commander Matthew Klein indicated that all signs point to one suspect as behind the 10 incidents identified by the Voice (through February 26). The Voice was not aware of the four incidents described by the resident of a house in the 3300 block of Prospect, which would bring the total number of suspected “Cuddler” incidents to 14.

On Wednesday afternoon, Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety sent out a public safety alert which read: “a student reported to MPD that an unidentified male entered her residence … and lay down on the couch with her.”

According to one of the victim’s roommates, a tall, thin man entered their residence around 4:00 a.m. The victim had fallen asleep on the couch, and she awoke with the man on top of her. Some friends of the residents had left the house earlier in the night without locking the door. When the victim woke up, the intruder quickly fled from the room, but the victim saw that he was tall and pale with short hair.

“It was around four o’clock, and I heard one of my roommates say, ‘I got cuddled,’” the victim’s roommate said. “I went across the hall and said, ‘Are you okay?’ She said … she woke up with a guy on top of her.”

Upon hearing about the intruder, the victim’s roommate called the police. A Crime Team Investigation Unit arrived at the victim’s home at 4:30 a.m., and they collected fingerprints and footprints. Police also collected the clothes that the victim was wearing and other objects from the room. The police questioned all of the residents of the house, and officers did not leave until four and a half hours later.

According to the resident that the Voice interviewed, the same man has approached their home at least four times since the summer of 2008. Seven girls live in the house on the 3300 block of Prospect Street.

“The cops told us today that apparently [the intruder] could have been trying to come other times and had just been unsuccessful when we were all asleep,” the resident said. “We’re all really worried because the cops are not aware of any other houses where they’ve heard of him coming multiple times.”

The first incident at the house occurred sometime in July. The intruder entered the house and lay down beside another resident.

At the end of September, the intruder began to enter the room of the resident the Voice spoke with. The woman was awake when the intruder appeared at her doorway. According to the girl, he was tall and thin with pale skin with a short haircut, although she was not wearing her glasses at the time. According to the Voice’s source, all of the roommates provided the same description of the intruder.

“[The intruder] actually spoke to me,” she said. “I was startled and I said, ‘Hello, what do you want?’ He said, ‘Oh sorry,’ and he was not very old.”

After the second incident, the residents of the house purchased bolt locks and had their windows secured.

The third incident occurred in November. The intruder attempted to climb through a bedroom window to enter the home. Both doors to the house were locked at the time. Later in the evening, the intruder attempted to enter through a kitchen window.

“My roommate’s boyfriend was here [at the house],” the source said. “He was armed with a kitchen knife, and he scared [the intruder] away until he left.”

Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety could not comment in time for the Voice’s print deadline, and the Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment.