The Controller’s Office mistakenly issued a Bradley QuickCard ID on Monday to a Peoria man around the age of 60 who has had several run-ins with police officers within the past week.
The man told an assistant in the Controller’s Office, which handles the distribution of QuickCards, that he was instructed to visit the office and obtain a Bradley ID. The man showed the worker his driver’s license, and his name matched that of an incoming student who was born in 1998.
The office took the man’s picture and issued him a Bradley ID card.
“The QuickCard assistant verified the picture on the driver’s license was the individual requesting the ID card,” Assistant Controller Dennis Koch said. “The QuickCard assistant was then able to ascertain that an individual with the same name was listed as an incoming student in the university database.”
Later that day, a student residence hall worker saw the man roaming in the lobby of University Hall and called the Bradley University Police Department.
“The student security office staff inside University Hall pushed the panic alarm, which triggered an immediate police response,” BUPD Chief Brian Joschko said. “When we called the office staff as [BUPD] officers were arriving, they explained the person seemed suspicious, as well as confused.”
The man left University Hall when he saw the officers.
“The officers did not speak with him at this point, but [the officers] had just dealt with him near the Admissions Office and knew who he was based upon the description,” Joschko said.
BUPD was able to find the man soon after he left the dorm building.
“BUPD officers located the person near St. Mark’s Church and confiscated the ID card at that time,” Joschko said. “He was advised that if he returned to campus, he would be arrested for trespassing.”
While the man was given an ID, his card had not been activated for residence hall access.
“New ID cards are typically not immediately activated,” Joschko said. “We believe the person was let into the building by an unsuspecting student.”
Additionally, the man has had past incidents with BUPD. A day before he was issued the Bradley ID, the man was found loitering outside Michel Student Center.
“Within the last week, there were additional interactions with the person before he was banned, but none of those interactions rose to the level of writing a police report,” Joschko said.
Student Admissions Representative Sarah Heilbronner was holding doors at Williams Hall for a visit day last Friday, April 7, when a man approached her and asked if he could have a tour of the dorm. She pointed him toward the Admissions Office.
The man matches the description of the 60-year-old who obtained the Bradley ID, but it is unconfirmed that it is the same person.
“He just kind of lingered [in Williams], and then he proceeded to take off his shoes and walk around in his socks and was about to get something at the vending machines,” Heilbronner said. “[He] realized that it only took Bradley cards, and so he asked to borrow my credit card, and I was like, ‘Uh, no, I don’t carry my credit card on me.’”
Heilbronner, a senior theatre arts and advertising double major, said the man continued to make small talk with her as families were walking in and out of the building.
“It was just kind of an awkward situation,” Heilbronner said. “He was talking to a father on the tour, and it was very uncomfortable.”
According to Heilbronner, the man was telling students that he’s been looking into taking a psychology class at Bradley.
In light of the incident with the Bradley ID card, Koch said the Controller’s Office has implemented additional protocols prior to card issuance.
“For safety reasons we cannot release the specific protocols, but it includes cross referencing more personal identification elements,” Koch said.
Ryan Bair, executive director of Residential Living and Student Conduct, said he thinks residence hall safety was not greatly impacted by the incident.
“A Bradley ID is not coded for residence hall access automatically,” Bair said. “Access is coded only for the specific residence hall a student resides.”
