The Emory Wheel regularly meets with Emory Police Department (EPD) Records Manager Ed Shoemaker (87G, 90G) and Communications Director of Campus Safety Morieka Johnson (94C, 24L) and uses EPD’s public crime log to inform the Emory University community about recent crime on and around Emory’s campuses.
To report a crime, contact EPD at 404-727-6111 or police@emory.edu.
Theft by deception attempt outside Emory Student Center
A female student notified EPD shortly after midnight on Nov. 1 that an unfamiliar man tried to access her banking information on her phone. EPD met with her outside Eagle Hall.
The man had approached the student as she left the Emory Student Center just before 11:30 p.m. He said he needed to borrow her phone to call his mother because he had left his phone in an Uber.
The student let him use the phone, and he started opening apps on her phone as if he was looking for something specific, Shoemaker said. He then returned her phone and the student went home to Raoul Hall. The man stopped her again before she went inside Raoul to make one more phone call, and the student let him use the phone again.
When she got the phone back, she noticed that all of her banking and financial apps had recently been opened, but the man had not removed any money from the accounts.
The student could not provide a complete description of the man to EPD. She said he looked college-aged and that he was wearing athletic wear. EPD recommended that the student monitor her accounts for fraudulent behavior following the incident.
The man was unsuccessful in his attempt, but this may be the fourth time this specific type of scam has occurred, according to Shoemaker. EPD will attempt to follow up on the case.
Harassing communications at the Goizueta Business School
A female faculty member from Goizueta Business School reported receiving harassing communications on Nov. 4 on X shortly after 9 a.m.
From mid-August to mid-September, the woman received a series of messages on X, including “I admit women are winning the battle of the sexes. Us men are the losers,” “It’s not fair that women outperform us” and “I admit women are the superior gender,” from another X account.
The woman did not respond to any of the messages. She also did not block the sender, which Shoemaker said made it easier for EPD to investigate the messages.
The woman received four phone calls on Nov. 1 from the same number on her office phone. She did not answer because the number was unfamiliar, but the caller left a message. In the voicemail, a male voice addressed her by name and said, “I admit women won the battle of the sexes. Us men are losers.”
This led EPD to believe that it was the same person who had sent her the messages on X, according to Shoemaker.
The faculty member’s information, including her business phone number, is published online in the University directory. Her X account, which she told EPD is “semi-work-related,” makes references to her job at Emory.
The woman indicated that the calls left her “unsettled.” EPD will work with the information the faculty member provided to investigate the case, Shoemaker said.
Battery on Clifton Road
A male student contacted EPD around 10 p.m. on Nov. 4 to report that an unknown man punched him three times on the right side of his face around 4 p.m. that day.
The student had been walking from Woodruff Circle down Clifton Road toward the Goizueta Business School when a man wearing a black shirt and gray pants approached him and punched him. The man who committed the assault ran to a vehicle that was parked on the other side of Clifton Road, toward the North Decatur Building.
The student did not see the vehicle well enough to provide a description and did not recall that there were any witnesses present. He suffered visible injuries on the right side of his face, with some bruising near the right side of his eye.
He said he did not want any medical attention and did not want an investigator to follow up, but EPD explained to him that when a crime occurs, they look into what happened and why. However, according to Shoemaker, the student made up the incident and the assault never occurred. EPD does not know why the student fabricated the story.
