A group of five or six unidentified teenagers harassed PA students and threw eggs at various buildings on the Andover campus late last Friday night. The pranksters “egged” Draper Cottage and the house counselor’s car. They also defecated on the dorm’s doormat and front stairs leading to the door. At Fuess House, the local teenagers removed a PA student’s window screen and threw an egg onto the bed. A female student alerted Public Safety about the teenagers when they began throwing eggs at her and her friends near Bancroft. Nathan Hale, Fuess House, Draper Cottage, Rockwell House and Bancroft Hall were all egged. Tom Conlon, Director of Public Safety, said that Public Safety, in conjunction with Andover Police Department officers, cornered the group of five or six teenagers near Judson Road. The teenagers evaded the officers, and Public Safety later found empty egg cartons behind Stowe House. Conlon said, “The kids took off into the woods, so we weren’t able to identify them.” He said that the teenagers were most likely students from Andover High School. Conlon said that this incident was not the first of its kind. Eggings around campus occasionally occur, especially on Halloween weekend. “I’ve been here almost 22 years now, and over that time [similar pranks] have happened four or five times,” said Conlon, recalling an egging six or seven years ago. In that incident, Public Safety and the Andover Police Department caught the pranksters, who had to wash off the buildings they egged. Conlon does not think of the incidents as serious safety concerns. “Mischief is what it is,” he said. “It’s adolescent pranks. They probably think it’s pretty exciting to hit something with eggs and get away with it.” The Fuess student thought of the incident in his room as “just a prank.” After returning to his room on Friday night, he found his window screen popped out of its frame and thought that a squirrel had gotten in until he found a broken egg on his pillow. He reported this to Mark Cutler, House Counselor of Fuess House and Instructor in Spanish, who then alerted Public Safety. In order to reach the dormitory, the teenagers had to open gates and walk across two lawns. “I guess [the fact my screen was removed] means they could have been in my room,” he said, “They could have been in the dorm then, is a little worrying, but I have my window locked now.” “It doesn’t matter now. My pillow’s clean. It’s all good,” he said. Chris Nanda ’12, Prefect to Draper Cottage, found out about the incident at his dorm after Louis Bernieri, Complementary House Counselor in Draper Cottage and Instructor in English, warned students about the excrement on the doorstep after one student stepped in it. Nanda said, “I know these things don’t happen often, so I don’t think it’s really something we all should be worried about.” Nanda added that most of the Juniors in Draper found the incidents humorous. However, he said that he thought the egging of the car and the feces was “taking [the prank] too far.” Egging incidents have occurred elsewhere as well. A few weekends prior to the Draper incident, eggings occurred in downtown Andover and in West Andover. In case of future incidences, Conlon said, “We ask people out and about to let us know right away if they happen to see a group of kids that they don’t recognize. We always ask the students to be our extra eyes and ears out there.”
