Eugene police arrested University student Benjamin Raymond Kelley on Friday morning on a variety of felony burglary and theft charges after Kelley allegedly stole more than $2,500 in women’s clothing and personal mementos from three H.P. Barnhart residence hall rooms.
When Eugene Police Department officers searched Kelley’s room in Barnhart late Friday, they found between $2,500 and $3,000 worth of women’s underwear, swimsuits, personal photos and keepsakes, all believed to have been taken from at least five residents in three rooms, EPD officer Pete Aguilar said. Officers also found fireworks in Kelley’s room that appeared to be altered or homemade, which brought an EPD dangerous materials van to the residence hall Friday night.
Kelley, 25, spent the weekend in the Lane County Jail waiting arraignment today on three counts of first-degree burglary, three counts of first-degree theft, one count of second-degree theft and one count of unlawful possession of a destructive device. First-degree
burglary and theft are felony charges.
Aguilar said that, after talking with a number of Barnhart residents, officers couldn’t find a cause for the alleged incidents, nor is there a pattern of thefts in Kelley’s past, but alcohol may have factored into the incidents.
EPD spokeswoman Pam Alejandre said Kelley became extremely intoxicated late Thursday night and was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital. He returned to the residence hall early Friday and, at 6:30 a.m., reportedly walked into a third-floor room where two female residents were sleeping.
Alejandre said the women awoke immediately and pushed him out of their room without a struggle. An hour later, Kelley allegedly entered the fifth-floor room across the hall from his own. When the female resident awoke, she reportedly found him rummaging through her clothes. Alejandre said she yelled at him to leave, and he did — with her clothes in tow. She followed him into the hallway, where Alejandre said the woman “lunged at him to grab stuff,” and in the process “she ripped off his shirt and scratched his back.”
EPD officers arrived at 10:20 a.m. and arrested Kelley, but an hour later another call came in from two female residents who returned home to find their fourth-floor room “ransacked.”
Aguilar said that officers found almost $1,000 in clothing and other items from the room, including an entire underwear drawer from a dresser, when they searched Kelley’s room.
“Some of these women, they had no underwear or clothes to wear,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar and other officers spent Friday afternoon interviewing the victims and other residents who saw Kelley on Friday, but none of the residents had enough contact with Kelley to notice if he was still intoxicated, Aguilar said, adding that Kelley was sober when interviewed Friday morning.
“I think drinking may have been a catalyst. It may have been a facilitator,” Aguilar said. “But he was sober enough to leave the hospital.”
University spokesman Ross West said University Housing circulated a letter, drafted by Department of Public Safety Director Tom Fitzpatrick, detailing Kelley’s arrest and charges. This information is also available on a special DPS hotline at 346-5692, which will be updated if additional information becomes available.
West said anyone with information regarding these or other incidents should call DPS at 346-5444 or EPD at 682-5121.