Five male Marquette students were installing a stereo into one of their vehicles this summer in front of the house they share in the 900 block of North 18th Street when a man they came to know affectionately as "Stan" came up and introduced himself to them.

"He seemed to be real friendly, he would stop by occasionally, and we would see him around," said Ryan Barbour, a senior in College of Arts & Sciences , one of the five students.

Stan appeared to be homeless.

"He never asked for money until about a month ago," Barbour said.

Stan soon became comfortable asking for money.

"When he did ask for money it was always for a purpose," said Jim Santilli, a senior in the College of Business Administration . "Stan would say something like 'I need to get some gas for my friend's car to take to a job interview.' We felt like we were helping him get back on his feet."

Soon, Stan began to enter the house, with or without permission. The students never confronted Stan about entering the house.

"We never fully trusted him but we never not trusted him," Barbour said.

Sept. 11, 2005

On Sept. 11, Ryan Barbour and Joe Erato, a student at Gateway Tech College, were watching a Packers game on television when Stan knocked on the door. He asked for a glass of water and showed them his new cell phone.

"I got it today," Stan said, according to Barbour.

Mike Van de Bogert, a senior in the College of Business Administration , had left his cell phone on the table in the living room and went to check his email.

When he returned his cell phone was no longer on the table.

"I just thought I misplaced it," Van de Bogert said.

Stan made his way upstairs to visit with Stanilli, who was trying to nap. Stan then began giving Stanilli a hard time by calling him a lazy college student.

Stanilli responded with, "Jim sleepy, Stan go bye-bye."

Then Stanilli's phone fell from near his bed to the floor. According to Stanilli, Stan reached down, picked it up, and left.

It did not occur to Stanilli that Stan took his phone until after he left.

Once the students realized that Stan may have taken Stanilli's and Van de Bogert's phones, they split up and began to search Stan's regular hang-outs.

Finally, Barbour and Jason Moran, a junior in the College of Engineering and another roommate, saw Stan on North 25th and State streets. They remained in the car and began questioning him about missing cell phones.

Barbour demanded that Stan empty his pockets. He emptied the front pockets and began walking away.

"As he turned away we saw two cell phone buldges in his back pockets," Barbour said.

They got out of the car and Moran told Stan to check his back pockets. He became suddenly hostile.

"We never saw anything like this before from Stan," Barbour said.

Stan walked away and pulled out a third cell phone. As Stan was talking on the phone he threw one of the cell phones over his head and into a bush.

The two retrieved the cell phone, which turned out to be Stanilli's phone. As they recovered the phone they did not see Stan make his getaway.

Barbour and Moran got back in the car to go after him. They tracked Stan down after a few blocks.

"We saw two Milwaukee Police officers on bikes and flagged them down," Moran said.

As they talked to the officers, the bushes behind them began to shake.

"The officers were curious about the Jurassic Park-style bush movement that was coming from behind us," Barbour said. "Sure enough it was Stan trying to hop the only barbed wire fence in the neighborhood."

Stan resisted the police officers as they tried to remove him from the fence, Barbour said.

The officers failed to recover the other stolen cell phone. The Department of Public Saftey arrived on the scene and assisted the officers in detaining Stan.

When Stan was in handcuffs, he lunged toward Barbour and threatened his life. Stan then accused Barbour of being the ringleader in a "cell phones for pot campaign."

Stan then said that Moran was in the possession of pot at that very moment. Moran was wearing pocket-less shorts, a t-shirt and was barefoot.

Stan was taken into custody by the police officers and has already been released.

"I saw Stan in front of the house on Friday," Sept. 16, Barbour said.

"The other cell phone was recovered with help from DPS the next day," said Erato.

DPS has had encounters with Stan before — once in April 2001 for theft and again in Febuary 2003 for loitering in a lobby of a campus apartment, according to Capt. Russ Shaw, associate director of DPS.

Situations like the five students' are easily avoidable, Shaw said.

"Use good judgment and caution around people you don't know," Shaw said.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 20, 2005.