04/16/2003

(U-WIRE) MISSOULA, Mont. – A man was arrested early Saturday morning for allegedly breaking into two Craig Hall dorm rooms at the University of Montana and stealing panties from the female residents, said Jim Lemcke, assistant director of Public Safety.

Patrick Gone, 25, was charged Monday with two counts of felony burglary and two counts of misdemeanor theft in Missoula County Justice Court. At his first appearance, Gone pleaded innocent to both charges, and bail was set at $10,000.

The appearance stems from an incident Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m., when, according to Public Safety records, a man had been seen burglarizing multiple rooms on the third floor of Craig Hall.

The women in the second room that was burglarized caught the man in the act, Lemke said. They were asleep when the man entered through their unlocked door.

“One of the victims heard something moving around, and when they looked up they saw a man going through their underwear drawer,” Lemcke said.

The man went into at least two rooms, Lemcke said, and only one item was taken from each.

“He entered the dorm rooms and took some ladies’ underwear,” Lemcke said. “Specifically panties.”

The man was seen leaving the dorm area soon after the women spotted him. Police then began searching for a man who fit the description given by witnesses, according to Lemcke.

Public Safety stopped a person who fit that description at the north side of Jesse Hall, the report said, and what the officers saw made things pretty obvious.

“When officers confronted him, he had ladies’ panties hanging out of his pockets,” Lemcke said. “That gave us a clue.”

Police found other articles of clothing at the scene that didn’t belong to any of the women occupying the two rooms, said Lemcke, which leads him to believe he may have have entered a third room during the night. Lemcke said he was unsure about where the clothes came from, but he did not rule out the possibility of a third burglary.

Lemcke said the investigation of the case was handed over to the Missoula City Police Department Monday morning.

This is not the first time that Gone has been in trouble on campus. Living in the dorms as a student during last fall, Gone was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor theft charge for stealing another resident’s small safe, which contained a couple hundred dollars.