Ohio University Police Department are investigating a robbery.
Update: OUPD released a statement early Tuesday morning clarifying that the student who claimed he was attacked Sunday actually fabricated the story. 19-year-old Karsten Vullemot has been charged with making a false alarm, a first-degree misdemeanor.
A man was reportedly attacked by six college-aged men and had his wallet stolen between 2 and 2:30 a.m. Sunday on South Green.
His misfortune turned into a police report, and details about the incident were sent to every Ohio University student email account early Monday afternoon. The crime alert is among many others OU police officers have yet to solve.
The student who was attacked this weekend was approached from behind by six males, punched to the ground and kicked by the group. He suffered an injury to his right eye and right knee. The attack occurred between O’Bleness and Cady houses.
Since 2010, the OU Police Department has posted five robbery crime alerts on its website, and Sunday’s robbery raises the number to six.
OUPD has issued 33 crime alerts since March of 2010 — 28 of which are still marked as active, according to the OUPD website. Cases listed as crime alerts include rape, arson, robbery, public indecency and assault, among others. OUPD has a case closure of 15 percent for those crimes in that time.
In early 2013, OU Police Chief Andrew Powers told The Post that the closure rate for such cases was “pretty average.”
In another interview in November of last year, Powers attributed that to a lack of investigative leads in most cases.
“In many cases the victim can’t even identify the person that committed the offense.” Powers said. “There is not a lot for us to work with.”
Powers said time was the biggest enemy in investigations as witnesses and evidence become less available.
As of Monday, Miami University Police Department has posted 39 crime alerts since February 2010 — 31 of which remain unsolved and three were unfounded. From the 39 crimes, seven were some type of robbery and 10 were burglaries.
The police department for University of Toledo had 20 crime alerts posted on its website since January 2010. The University of Akron had 19 crime alerts since 2012 and only one solved.
A report is qualified to be a crime alert when “a crime poses an ongoing threat to students, employees and members of the OU community,” according to OUPD’s website. Alerts may also be posted for other crimes as deemed necessary.
Those with information on the incident are encouraged to call OUPD at (740)-593-1911.
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