Police seeking daytime intruder

The Eugene Police Department on Saturday released a sketch of a man who is believed to have entered several residences in broad daylight in the West University neighborhood last Sunday, and possibly one on Thursday.

“The Sunday ones definitely seem to be all the same person,” said Kelly McIver, a spokesman for the University of Oregon Department of Public Safety.

The DPS website lists four incidents reported by residents in the past week.

The intruder in the three incidences on July 8 is described as a white male in his 30s, 5-feet-9 to 6-feet tall, heavyset with a large belly, short brown hair with receding hairline and a bushy, reddish-brown beard, sunburned complexion, smelling of cigarettes and body odor, seen wearing a black or Navy blue T-shirt and shiny black or Navy blue track pants.

A person fitting that description was reported to have entered a residence near East 16th Avenue and Hilyard Street about 10 a.m. last Sunday, using a chair to gain entrance to a bedroom window, according to the DPS. A UO student who lives in the home found the man, who claimed to be looking for his daughter, in an open closet. Before reporting the incident to police, the student asked the man to leave and he did.

About 4:30 p.m. last Sunday, a man fitting the same description reportedly walked into an apartment near East 18th Avenue and Patterson Street and initially refused to leave. About 30 minutes later, a man again fitting the same description entered an apartment near East 15th Avenue and Ferry Street and sat down in the entryway. When a female resident confronted him, he reportedly said, “Hi” and told the woman she “looked hot.” She told him to leave, and he did, according to the DPS.

About 3 a.m. Thursday, a resident in another apartment near East 15th Avenue and Ferry Street reporting coming home to find an open window and an alarm going off and the living room ransacked, according to the DPS. Eugene police responded. Nothing was reported missing.

“The important thing in all of this is it’s very important for people to keep their homes locked,” Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin said on Saturday.

Many people leave their windows open in the summertime, making access easy to some residences, she said.